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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Inverness => Topic started by: RedMystic on Wednesday 12 February 14 19:59 GMT (UK)
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Hi Chatters,
I started looking for some suggestions on finding dead people on South Uist/Benbecula, but my topic has morphed from there so I've set up a new thread to discuss a specific branch I'm seeking and/or connect with other Chatters who might be looking for them too. ;)
Here's the original thread FYI.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=677143.0
Does anyone know if there are any family history books or have any family history expertise for Stoneybridge (other than ScotlandsPeople which I've sourced). I'd like any stories or other background about this family. ???
Can anyone figure out what happened to the following children: Christie, Marion and Donald. ???
I've looked for a death date for mother Margaret / Peggy but haven't found it. Any help with that would also be appreciated. ???
Here is the family.
MARGARET OR PEIGI OR PEGGY MACDONALD born about 1829 in Carnan, South Uist - died after 1884 (alive when husband Angus dies in 1884; no obvious record of her death apparent on SP). She married ANGUS MACDONALD born about 1830 in South Uist- died on 24 Dec 1884 in Stoneybridge, South Uist, TB 2 years; informant son Donald).
Angus MacDonald and Margaret or Peigi or Peggy MacDonald had the following children:
i. RODERICK MACDONALD born in 1848 in South Uist (christening date 31 Jul 1848). He died (not with family in 1851 census).
ii. MARION MACDONALD born in 1850 in South Uist (christening date 25 Feb 1850). She died (not with family in 1851 census).
iii. ALEXANDER MACDONALD born on 24 May 1852 in South Uist. He died (not with family in 1861 census).
iv. MARGARET MACDONALD born in 1854 in Garryganichy, South Uist. She died 1854 in Garryganichy, South Uist.
v. ARCHIBALD OR ARCHY MACDONALD born on 13 Jan 1856 in Garryganichy, South Uist - died on 09 Jul 1919 in Stoneybridge, South Uist. He married ANN BOWIE (daughter of John Bowie and
Catherine MacEachen) on 6 Aug 1889 in Stoneybridge, South Uist (witnesses: John Bowie and Christina MacDonald). She was born on 29 Jan 1860 in South Uist. She died after 1919 (alive at time of husband's death).
vi. JOHN MACDONALD born on 20 Jan 1858 in Garryganichy, South Uist. He died in 1947 in 214 Stoneybridge, South Uist. He married Margaret or Peggy MacInnes (daughter of John MacInnes and Harriet MacAskil) on 10 Jan 1883 in Stoneybridge, South Uist, Inverness-shire (witness Donald MacDonald (brother). She was born about 1859 in West Kilbride, South Uist.
vii. JANE MACDONALD born on 13 Aug 1859 in South Uist. She died on 12 Apr 1860 in Stoneybridge, South Uist.
viii. MARGARET MACDONALD born on 24 Feb 1861 in South Uist. She died (another sibling is born and named Margaret in Jan 1862; this Margaret does not appear in 1871 census; no obvious death record on SP).
ix. JANE MACDONALD born on 08 Jan 1862 in Garryganichy, South Uist. She died (not with family in 1881 census; no death or marriage apparent on SP).
x. MARGARET MACDONALD born on 8 Jan 1862 in Garryganichy, South Uist. She died (not with family in 1871 census; no death or marriage apparent on SP).
xi. ANN MACDONALD born on 22 Dec 1864 in Stoneybridge, South Uist. She died (not with family in 1871 census; no death or marriage apparent on SP).
xii. MARION MACDONALD born on 15 Jan 1867 in Stoneybridge, South Uist. She died (she lived with Archy in 1891 but is not with brothers Archibald or John in 1901 census; no death or marriage apparent on SP).
xiii. DONALD MACDONALD born on 14 Apr 1869 in Stoneybridge, South Uist. He died (not with family in 1891 census; informant on father's 1884 death record; no death or marriage apparent on SP).
xiv. ALEXANDERINA MACDONALD born on 16 May 1871 in Stoneybridge, South Uist. She died in 1873 in Stoneybridge, South Uist.
xv. CHRISTY OR CHRISTINA MACDONALD was born on 29 Apr 1873 in Stoneybridge, South Uist. She died (witness at brother Archibald's marriage in 1889; not with family in 1891 census; no death or marriage apparent on SP).
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Hi Redmystic,
Just checking you have looked in all 4 areas on SP & female maiden names for deaths.
Anne Marie
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Ann, surname Bowie, other surname MacDonald - tick box which reads "Include Unrecorded Mother's Maiden Surname"
There is a death recorded 1930, County (Inverness), District (Howmore)
Anne Marie
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Surname MacDonald (Traditional soundex) for Mc/Mac
Forename Jan (begins with option) for Jane/Janet
Include Unrecorded Mother's Maiden Surname
Inverness, Howmore
Brings up 15 (1855 - 2013)
Anne Marie
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Hi Anne Marie. Thank you very much for your help. :) I'll take a look at the records you've identified.
This part of my family has been a challenge. I contacted the Benbecula Genealogy Society back in Feb. They indicated they were making contact with the family, but sadly, nothing came of it.
Coincidentally, I arrived in Salt Lake City late last night for a week of family history research. The library here apparently has a great collection of resources for the Uists so my fingers are crossed that I'll start making headway today.
Thank you very much for the lookups you've done. :)
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For females deaths I would suggest you search with forename blank & tick for females only with Macdonald surname with soundex.
This will include variants for names such as Margaret/Peigi, Marion/Sarah, Alexandrina/Lexy
1860 - 1967 332 matches. (14 pages) but worth paying the £3.50 BP
Anne Marie
P.S. If you work out the earliest death date & the latest assuming the youngest girl lived to be 100, this will give you the range you need :-)
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Excellent. My proficiency on SP is improving & with direction like yours, it can only get better. Much appreciated. Thank you.
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MARGARET OR PEIGI OR PEGGY MACDONALD born about 1829 in Carnan, South Uist - died after 1884 (alive when husband Angus dies in 1884; no obvious record of her death apparent on SP). She married ANGUS MACDONALD born about 1830 in South Uist- died on 24 Dec 1884 in Stoneybridge, South Uist
Hi Mystic,
Can you tell me Angus c 1830 parents please ???
I have a stray Angus b c 1827 Stoneybridge, S/Uist son of Donald MacDonald & Ann MacIntyre who's parents were Neil MacIntyre & Flora Bowie
Donald MacDonald & Ann MacIntyre's 6 kids were all born Stoneybridge :P
I meant to ask this a long time ago ::)
Anne Marie
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Hi Ann Marie, I'm not sure how much this is going to help you ... all these darn MacDonalds! ::) ;D
According to Angus' death record, his father was Donald MacDonald, crofter deceased. His mother was Margaret MacDonald nee MacDonald. :P
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Hi Ann Marie, I'm not sure how much this is going to help you ... all these darn MacDonalds! ::) ;D
Thanks Mystic................unfortunately it doesn't ::) ;D
I have been avoiding MacDonald's for years & I'm sure you know why ??? ;D ::)
They are probably related but records don't go back far enough sadly.
Not only do I have the Stoneybridge connection but I have the parents of my Angus died in Ardivachar, (Iochar/Iochdar).........the same area where Carnan is :P
Anne Marie
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Dont know if this helps but i have death a cert for Margaret Kennedy ms McDonald (widow of Samuel Kennedy) and parents Angus McDonald deceased and Margaret McDonald ms McDonald in 30/03/1869 Parish of Laggan , Crathy or Orathy it says also.
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Hi Ray,
Worth keeping note of.......
Can you give the age of Margaret on death please?
Anne Marie
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I know it's an old post but did you ever find this...
"v. ARCHIBALD OR ARCHY MACDONALD born on 13 Jan 1856 in Garryganichy, South Uist - died on 09 Jul 1919 in Stoneybridge, South Uist. He married ANN BOWIE (daughter of John Bowie and
Catherine MacEachen) on 6 Aug 1889 in Stoneybridge, South Uist (witnesses: John Bowie and Christina MacDonald). She was born on 29 Jan 1860 in South Uist. She died after 1919 (alive at time of husband's death)."
BOWIE ANN 69 - 1930 - 118/2 7 Howmore
MACDONALD ANN 69 - 1930 - 118/2 7 Howmore
Annie
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Crathy is right for Laggan parish, the last of the crofters there left when the Spey dam was constructed and fields flooded. They were mostly Catholic & their chapel at St Michael's across the Spey was taken down and re-erected at Pluscardine.
https://www.archaeologyreportsonline.com/PDF/ARO2_Spey_Dam.pdf
Bests,
Skoosh.
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Crathie, Parish of Laggan, on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map.
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=57.01516&lon=-4.33975&layers=5&b=1
Same area on modern map https://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/NN5893 - the name survives but not the crofts shown on the old map.
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The Spey dam was built in the 40's and the last of the Crathie folk, a Charlie Og MacPherson, left in the 50's.
I'm told that before the war the crofts were mainly occupied by elderly brothers & sisters so the wee community died out. The chapel was built by MacNab of Sherrabeg, the tacksman, who was connected to MacDonnell of Keppoch.
I fancy the Crathie folk would have been buried at the old kirkyard at Aberarder, adjacent to Aberarder Lodge on Loch Laggan. There is also a very old burial ground up the river Markie from Crathie called Riebalich? but that was for unbaptised weans, illegitimate folk & strangers. Not easy to find, a square left unplanted by conifers with some stone markers. Doubtful if that's on a map but the guys who planted the right bank of the Markie obviously knew it was there.
Skoosh.
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Margaret Kennedy was 86 when she died in Crathy. Parents Angus McDonald and Ann MacDonald, informant was Angus McPherson, grandson. I managed to get to Crathie at the Dam, theres a gable end of one house still standing.
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interesting piece by a Graham Grant on the coffin road from Whitebridge, Loch Ness, over the bealach to Glen Markie & Crathie then to St Kenneth's burial ground, Aberarder, Loch Laggan,
https://southlochnessheritage.co.uk/coffin-road/
A few Crathie burials at Laggan Old parish kirkyard,
https://www.lagganheritage.com/lagganold.html
www.cushnieent.force9.co.uk/Moray%20Churches/logykenny.htm
Skoosh.
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That's fascinating, Skoosh.
The more so because even the first edition of the six-inch Ordnance Survey map shows no road or track to Loch na Lairige, or from there to Glen Markie, which would mean not far short of 3 miles of trackless moorland with several burns to cross. So it must have been a pretty rough hard journey.
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Forfarian, loch of the pass right enough but it looks a very high route to carry a coffin when the route west of Geal Charn looks a better bet & more direct?
Skoosh.
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I was just trying to follow the route as mapped and described on the South Loch Ness Heritage web site, which shows the it passing the north end of Loch na Lairige and continuing south-east to Glen Markie via the Piper's Burn.
Loch na Lairige is about 730 metres above sea level. if you go south-east from the north end of Loch na Lairige to Glen Markie the highest point is 830 metres. If you go south from Loch na Lairige you have quite a detour west on trackless moor to avoid the summit of Geal Charn at 926 metres, down beside Feith Talagan and then another 4 miles or so on the road from Garva Bridge to Crathie.
It makes absolute sense that people from Crathie and around the headwaters of the Spey would be carried a few miles over the hill for burial at St Kenneth's. It makes very little sense to carry coffins, as a regular practice, 22 miles over the hills from Whitebridge in the parish of Boleskine and Abertarff to St Kenneth's in the parish of Laggan. None of the writers quoted in the South Loch Ness Heritage item actually states that this was the case; what they say is fairly general.
Interestingly, while most of the parish accounts I have read in the Statistical Accounts of Scotland https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk/static/statacc/dist/home tend to mention the names of the neighbouring parishes, the Old Statistical Accounts of Boleskine with Abertaff and of Laggan do not. From this I infer that there was not much in the way of coming and going between the two parishes, at least in the 1790s.
It would be interesting, and instructive, to see how many of the gravestones at St Kenneth's mention places outwith the parish of Laggan.
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Well.
There is a web site https://sites.google.com/site/highlandmemorialinscriptions/home/badenoch-strathspey that has transcription/indexes of gravestones including Laggan Kirk, and the information contains any place mentioned on a stone.
There are 79 place names altogether. Six are overseas, three in England and sixteen in Scotland but not in Inverness-shire. That left 54 places. Of these one (Fort Augustus) is in the parish of Boleskine and Abertarff, three others are in parishes around the Great Glen - Kilmallie, Kilmonivaig, and Inverness - and one which could be in Abernethy and Kincardine.
I then looked at the indexes to places in the OS Name Books at www.scotlandspeople. The parishes of Laggan and Kingussie and Insh are indexed together, which is mildly annoying but doesn't really matter in this case because Kingussie and Insh are both east of Laggan. Using those indexes and the old maps at https://maps.nls.uk/ I was able to identify all but six of them. None of these came up in Boleskine and Abertarff in a full search of Scotland's Places. They are Achnabeaghan, Braeroy, Croftlaggan, Faegour, Glengarth and Lagg (as opposed to Laggan).
The only gravestone in Laggan Kirkyard mentioning anywhere in Boleskine and Abertarff is the Fort Augustus one, which was a burial in 1923, late enough for the body to have been taken there in a motor hearse; and it if had been carried, the most direct route from Fort Augustus would be the much better road over the Corrieyairack Pass.
So if there was ever a tradition of carrying bodies over from Whitebridge, it was not accompanied by a tradition of erecting gravestones with inscriptions recording the fact.
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Forfarian, the SMC Guide for the Central Highlands has an old drove road marked by cairns across the Monadhliath from Glen Markie to Whitebridge, at 3 miles up the glen it ascends NW to Loch na Larige 2,500 ft, passing NE of Geal Charn and descends by the east side of the Allt Chrom to Stronlarig Lodge then to Whitebridge, distance 22 miles. There was also a direct route up Glen Markie, over the pass to the headwaters of the Findhorn and so to Inverness. This coffin road must have been used only in the dim & distant, when saints meant something and not for ordinary folk.
The Mackenzies of Gairloch carried members of the chief's family who died in the west over the hills to the east coast & their vault at Beauly Priory. This took over a hundred bearers, relays of the best men in the district, feeding and drink for the multitude at their overnight stops was organised from Conon House & repeated on the return journey. An expensive business.
The route from Glen Shero Lodge to Aberarder is called "Mary Mariah's Road" this was improved by Sir John Ramsden as it connected his estates. A great walk.
Bests,
Skoosh.
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Forfarian, the SMC Guide for the Central Highlands has an old drove road marked by cairns across the Monadhliath from Glen Markie to Whitebridge, at 3 miles up the glen it ascends NW to Loch na Larige 2,500 ft, passing NE of Geal Charn and descends by the east side of the Allt Chrom to Stronlarig Lodge then to Whitebridge, distance 22 miles.
Yes, that's the one featured in the South Loch Ness web site.
It's also on the Heritage Paths network map http://www.heritagepaths.co.uk/pathdetails.php?path=327. At 22 km I might even consider walking it - but not until the days are a lot longer. Or maybe not - there's a steep climb of about 400 metres out of Glen Markie!
There was also a direct route up Glen Markie, over the pass to the headwaters of the Findhorn and so to Inverness. This coffin road must have been used only in the dim & distant, when saints meant something and not for ordinary folk.
Just interesting that the old OS maps don't show either of these routes. They would need to be well marked with cairns because it would be pretty easy to get lost on the moors.
The Mackenzies of Gairloch carried members of the chief's family who died in the west over the hills to the east coast & their vault at Beauly Priory. This took over a hundred bearers, relays of the best men in the district, feeding and drink for the multitude at their overnight stops was organised from Conon House & repeated on the return journey. An expensive business.
Not for your average crofter then! :)
The route from Glen Shero Lodge to Aberarder is called "Mary Mariah's Road" this was improved by Sir John Ramsden as it connected his estates. A great walk.
Is that the one that crosses the hill and comes down to what used to be the Lochlaggan Inn?
All very interesting stuff.
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@ Forfarian, an old pic of Sinclairs Loch Laggan Inn,
https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/27863/loch-laggan-sinclairs-inn
The road from Laggan Bridge to Spean Bridge is a Telford one I believe, prior to which it was the hazardous Corrieyairack which often closed for three months in Winter.
Until the Great War the inn was a halt for the last Scottish stagecoach which ran from the Duke of Gordon, Kingussie to the station at Tulloch. Better public transport then than now!
Skoosh.
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Thank you, Skoosh. Very interesting.
I often used to drive that road when I lived in Fort William because it was the quickest route between there and my parents' home. In those days (early 1970s) there were a dozen or so rather unappealing wooden holiday chalets on the slope above the filling station at the inn.
Hadn't realised that there was ever a stagecoach between Kingussie and Tullich. Seems odd, given that Kingussie had a station, that it should have continued so long. (I remember the Duke of Gordon quite well - we used to call it the DoG. Never stayed there, but attended various functions, dances and meetings in it.)
I bet the Whitebridge to Glen Markie road, and the Glen Markie to River Findhorn road, were also impassable in most winters.
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Best post I have had in a long time. Very educational and inspiring. Great job!
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Folks, a pic' of the mail-coach! :D
https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/highland-horse-teams-re-enact-mail-coach-run-1998461
Back in the day, take the train from Glasgow's Buchanan Street station to Tulloch station then tell the the mail-coach driver to let you off at Strathmashie and an hours walk to Crathie for your tea!
Bests,
Skoosh.
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Best post I have had in a long time. Very educational and inspiring. Great job!
I agree, been following too.
Skoosh, did you get a £30 seat on the coach?
Annie
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My apologies to the original poster for taking part in hi-jacking the thread and drifting away from Angus and Margaret MacDonald in South Uist! :)
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Missed the hurl in the coach Annie, been re-reading a book published between the wars "The Land of Lochiel!" by T.Ratcliffe Barnett, a few Laggan chapters including "Crathie of the Peats!" available online for about £5. A good wee read but not a bad landlord in sight.
Apologies also for the hi-jacking! ;)
Bests,
Skoosh.
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No worries about the high jacking. ;D It's been a fun to follow your communication, additions, and insight of the past few days. :)
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Mystic...
Did you miss my post Reply #12?
Death for Ann Bowie or MacDonald.
Annie