Author Topic: McPhee cave people wick  (Read 14831 times)

Offline Mcphee1944

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McPhee cave people wick
« on: Saturday 27 June 15 00:26 BST (UK) »
I'm after any information about the cave people of wick. Family trees etc. I believe I'm related but still trying to put together my McPhee family tree. The people in the photo 1866 will all be dead now..... But maybe you have a family tree (dead)  I can look at and see if my family matches yours?  Hope I've not broke any rules again.

Offline Manchester Rambler

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Re: McPhee cave people wick
« Reply #1 on: Saturday 27 June 15 00:29 BST (UK) »
Hello, an welcome to RootsChat!

If you haven't already done so, a good way to make surname connections with other members is to enter your surname interests in the Surname Interests Table (SIT), and to check there whether others are researching these names. 

This can be found at http://surname.rootschat.com/ , there is a link to it under "Your Tools" at the bottom of each Rootschat page.

The more people who enter their surnames, the more chance there will be of making a connection!
ANT: Nesbit, Potts; CHS: Gosling (Hazel Grove/Lymm), Hinton (Lymm), Johnson (Hazel Grove), Marsland (Hazel Grove), Massey (Daresbury), Sorton (Warmingham); LAN: Jackson, James, Potts (Manchester/Salford); MAY: Caulfield, Griffin (Leveelick); SAL: Goodwin, Johnson (Bridgnorth), Gregory (Wellington); STS: Goodwin, Gregory, Johnson (Wolverhampton); Hallett (Trysull); SOM: Dowding, James, Jones (Bath)

Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline whiteout7

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Re: McPhee cave people wick
« Reply #2 on: Saturday 27 June 15 01:05 BST (UK) »
Hi McPhee, welcome to Rootschat. New users often post things in the wrong place, so don't worry about that!

I'm not a McPhee but have you seen this article written by the Doctor Sir Arthur Mitchell? It refers to the people you speak of. Sounds like a very rough life.
https://www.amazon.com/Castles-Dwellings-Europe-Classic-Reprint/dp/1330880242

Apparently the name McPhee is very common in Wick, hopefully someone can help you go back further generations.

Wemyss/Crombie/Laing/Blyth (West Wemyss)
Givens/Normand (Dysart)
Clark/Lister (Dysart)
Wilkinson/Simson (Kettle or Kettlehill)

Offline Mcphee1944

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Re: McPhee cave people wick
« Reply #3 on: Sunday 28 June 15 22:53 BST (UK) »
Very kind of you good reading


Offline mcphee

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Re: McPhee cave people wick
« Reply #4 on: Saturday 06 February 16 21:44 GMT (UK) »
I am also very likely to be related, but am first-generation removed from Caithness. I have traced back to early 1800s for sure, with a probable link to 1779. All were living in Caithness, but not sure how they arrived there. Most earlier links about McPhees prior to late 1700s were in the Western Isles or thereabouts. We can only speculate, but the 50 yrs after the battle of Cullodden were times people in power in the region should be deeply ashamed of with the Highland Clearances etc, so perhaps the McPhees were displaced and forced further north and living hand to mouth. For whatever reason, pride, dispute, choice and want for freedom? the lifestyle continued. I don't know. After the second world war, the family were shifted into housing or put up in caravans.
Another person responded to your post by adding a link to a book chapter. I've seen that book chapter before. While there's no doubt that the families were living an unconventional and very tough lifestyle, i think that it's very unlikely that they'd be walking around naked. Just think about how cold it gets up there, and cutting past the very crude/tough language there is a prudish undertone, at least in my family. The writer has also clearly embellished in the final paragraph on p64 (71), choosing to ignore the accounts of oral history and instead creating tales of slum dwellers.

Offline Skoosh

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Re: McPhee cave people wick
« Reply #5 on: Sunday 07 February 16 11:31 GMT (UK) »
The McPhee's feature in a book by Alastair Phillips called, "My Uncle George.  There is a poem about the family of which I can only remember the first line,

"From out the cave in single file stepped forth the clan MacPhee!"

I think your best bet would be to contact the Wick Heritage Centre for info'.

Bests

Skoosh.

Offline GypsyGelMelty

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Re: McPhee cave people wick
« Reply #6 on: Monday 18 September 17 16:37 BST (UK) »
Hi there McPhee1944.
I am a Scottish Gypsy Traveller. Just so you know. Not all McPhee's are Gypsy Travellers.
Gypsy people did not originally have western names like McPhee.
Back in the medievil period when Gypsy people first arrived into Europe we tried to adapt to western culture by changing our names. It did not really work out well. As historic record of us during that period often refers to many Traveller groups as Eyqtian or "Moors" or Black people
So your going to find a wide mix of both White Scottish and Irish, possibly Black Carribeans and ethnic Travellers all with the name McPhee.
However luckily for you I know a Traveller lady name of Roseanna McPhee who claims in the video link below, to know about the Gypsy Traveller line of Mcphee's going back to the 1700's. Also a lot of McPhee's women would give their children the McPhee name via the middle name. So you'll find a lot of Townsley's, Cook's, White's, Robertson's, Stewart's, Johnson's ect who also came from McPhee's. Its on my Mammy and Granda's birth certificates as the middle name.
I currently live in France. But if I was back home, she'd be the one to ask.
Also many of McPhee Traveller decendants live in the Lochgilphead area. So try searching over west as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7MmfS3yfoA

Offline McPheeMoray

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Re: McPhee cave people wick
« Reply #7 on: Saturday 31 August 19 16:14 BST (UK) »
Hello

I have been discovering all about my cave dwelling Mcphee ancestors while researching my family history. My line were from Caithness but started occupying the caves on the moray coast up until about 1917.
I trace my family back to William McPhee and Margaret Campbell married in Orkney in 1810 whose descendants inhabited the caves.
Its been very interesting and I have built a fairly solid tree around my grandmother Nellie McPhee

Kind regards
fiona

Offline Skoosh

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Re: McPhee cave people wick
« Reply #8 on: Sunday 01 September 19 07:22 BST (UK) »
Welcome to Rootschat you folks!  ;D

Skoosh.