We are McDonald of Knoydart. My fathers (d:2017) Gedcom is SG7561391 and his R1a Clan Donald code is &JQNOQ. Our ancestors came out here to Australia in 1838 aboard the ship “William Nicol”. My fathers closest Big Y match is a proven McDonald of Knoydart descendant. Mr Kevin Eugene MacDonald (d:2020). His ancestors were from the Sandfield farms near Glenelg. They sailed for Canada around 1786 aboard the ship “McDonald”. Some believe the farms were part of the Barrisdale estate. Sandfield features prominently in his relatives names. His Clan Donald DNA Project code is &4QIZ5. We are hard to trace as the clan was disbanded in the early 1600s for excessive raiding and where they dispersed to is anyones guess.
For many years we have searched or the birth record of our Great Grandfather William McDonald. The first time we come across him is 1881 in Liverpool as a 15yo living as a 'nephew' but we have never been able to find a connection. He married twice and his father's name was blank on both so we assumed he was illegitimate. On his census records he consistently puts Liverpool as his place of birth but we have never found anything. We recently had information the lead us go believe that he may have actually been Scottish. He had several sons but only one daughter, called Flora, as there were no Flora's on his Mother's side we took an educated guess and searched Scottish record for a William McDonald born to a Flora McDonald - and came across one in Knoydart. All the information we have is he was born as an illegitimate son to Flora McDonald and her father was Angus McDonald on 12/4/1867. I would really like to find any DNA matches to myself or my brother to confirm that we have the right person. GEDmatch BF780642 and SH3711605. Many Thanks. Sue. I will continue to search for his mother and grandfather but thought posting on here may be useful!!
