MacKenzie - Abby and Donald.

[Rosinish]

Gadget,

A Cottar/Cotter/Cottager was someone who lived on a Farm while working for the Farmer (to my knowledge).

NZMack,

I would be surprised if you found another Abigail/Abby MacKenzie as that would be a very uncommon name in the area.

Annie

[Gadget]

My crofter friends in Lochbroom (I lived there for many years) used to refer to a cottar as someone who had a house/cottage and a bit of land/garden and therefore didn't have his own land to work - he could work on a farm or do other work - hence the possibility of a mason being a cottar.

Lochbroom/Wester Ross was definitely  Mackenzie country 

Gadget

[Gadget]

Sorry, Annie. I Got called away so was a bit brief. They're threatening thunder storms down here!

Donald snr on the 1841 is listed as a mason and Abby in 1851 is a cottar's widow. I wasn't sure but they do seem to be the same family and in the same place (without Donald jnr) so wondered if the cottar/mason would be a fit. 

Gadget

[Rosinish]

Yes Gadget, definitely possible as many people had 2 or more occupations such as Crofter/Fisherman, Cottar/Blacksmith etc.

I was referring to the forename Abigail not being a "common" name 

Thunderstorms....where

Annie

[Gadget]

Yep, Abigail also - I did a few family histories for my pals up there and there were lots of Abigail Mackenzies and McLeods there 

I had a giggle when I checked up the Ullapool Museum website - I recognised most of the people on the pics!

Thunderstorms predicted for North of England and Southern Scotland.

Just a thought - there were quite a few incomers to that area in the early 1800s from towards Gairloch and some from Assynt.

[NZMack]

Many thanks for all your help.  I am going to revisit all my info that I have gathered and see if I can get some more hints for the Scotland links.  Will be back when I have some other clues! :-)

[NZMack]

OK so here is what I have found from an account written by my father's cousin in a book called MacKenzie/McKenzie Tales.

Donald that came to New Zealand was born at Ullapool, Lochbroom 15 February 1825.  His mother Abigail MacKenzie nee MacKenzie was born in 1788 and she married Donald (Donald's father) at Badluarach on 9 December 1812.

My father's second cousin suggests that Donald and Abigail's (Abby) children were Alexander, Margaret, Kenneth and William.

On an Ancestry record in the 1851 census there is an Abigail MacKenzie as I have mentioned before with an Margaret, Kinnith and William but they appear to be the children of a Janet McLeod? So I am maybe barking up the wrong tree.

But apparently Donald jnr left Scotland for the goldfields of Bendigo and Ballarat and went back to Scotland after getting enough gold and bought into a stock and grain partnership in Ullapool.  However the business was not successful.  This may have been around the time of his marriage on 15 February 1863 to Catherine MacKay in Tore, Killearnan.  Donald Jnr went to New Zealand in 1867 on the Marco Polo and Catherine and the three children came over on the William Davie and arrived on 6 July 1870.

MacKenzie Tales does say that Donald joined his brother Alex in New Zealand. 

Well I hope that one of you gene geniuses can connect my missing dots.

Thanks in advance.

[Gadget]

I assume that your father's cousin didn't name the sources of his info.  Unfortunately, I don't see the early baptisms/marriage listed on any of the church records. This doesn't mean that they didn't happen - not all records have survived and the marriage records are particularly fraught with problems - see:

  http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/research/economicsocialhistory/historymedicine/scottishwayofbirthanddeath/marriage/

 It might be that the cousin found the info in old family records (letters/diaries/bibles) or from stories handed down.

Also, I noticed that Elizabeth, b. 1863, was b. Urray not Ullapool - Familysearch has both Elizabeths - the Ullapool/Lochbroom baptism was to a Roderick Mackenzie.




Gadget

[Skoosh]

Abigail is not a Gaelic name although apparently used in Ireland, (but not actually as Abigail), probably like the Anglicised Samuel, Julia etc', & in a society which commonly used patronymics anyhow, if you shouted for a song from Abigail at a ceilidh you'd wait long enough for a response. 

Skoosh.