Hi everyone,
I'll try to be brief! My grandmother is in her nineties. She gave me a family document about 6 years ago purporting to disseminate the origins of her Scottish family (her maiden name is Sinclair).
Long story short, the documents appear to be utterly wrong. They are unsourced and were typed by her aunt or great-aunt in the 50s. It seems to me that some very loose research was done and presented as fact at numerous family gatherings over the years- I've found multiple distant cousins with the same "proof" of our lineage. The lineage, no surprise, claims that my ancestor, Marjory McIntosh who immigrated to Canada in 1827, was the daughter of Duncan McIntosh, a laird, and his wife Agnes Dallas.
I have done a lot of research into this McIntosh of Castle Leathers family over the years and this is flatly untrue.
What I do know:
Marjory McIntosh was born in 1786 in Inverness (her tombstone and Canadian records support this). Parents unknown. Married in Petty, Inverness to Donald McNicol (alleged the Rev. with no evidence) on 24 Jan 1801 (parish records). Daughter Anne born and baptised 1802 in Petty (my ancestor) with witnesses Witnesses Alex McIntosh and James McNicol and married Angus Sinclair in Scotland before 1827 when the family immigrated. Angus's parentage, birthplace, and birth date are unknown (sadly...) but I know he died in 1830.
After Anne, Donald & Marjory McNicol had: Isabella, Marjory, Isabella, John, Margaret, and Sarah. I have found marriages for these kids in Canada and traced many of their descendants. All of the children immigrated with Marjory and Anne.
Donald McNicol died in 1826 or so, probably in Inverness, Scotland. Family document says he died while travelling to Jamaica to claim the McIntosh family fortune there (where did they get this stuff??). I don't really believe that but I have no means of disproving it. Nothing about Marjory suggests she was the daughter of nobility/gentry, but again, I can't disprove.
Marjory wrote several letters back home to her brother-in-law, James McNicol, farmer of Connage in Inverness. Connage is a small community also known as Fisherton within the parish of Petty.
I found a probable baptism for Donald and James to parents John and Isabella nee Fraser in Petty.
Link to the letters:
http://www.elginogs.ca/Home/ancestor-indexes/online-publications/emigrants-letters-from-elgin-county-to-scotland-1831-1851If anyone has any help for me whatsoever, you would have my eternal gratitude-- I am so frustrated by this family and would like to have something "real" to show my grandmother. I am looking for:
-parents of Marjory and Donald
-death of Donald
-birth of Angus Sinclair (may have been from somewhere else)
-lineage of these 2 families.
I would attach the documents about the purported origins but they're long and confusing- basically they suggest that Marjory is the sister of the chief of Clan Chattan (McIntosh) and daur. of Duncan McIntosh, laird of Castle Leathers. Says her husband was the Rev. Donald McNicol, an author. That person did exist but did not marry a Marjory McIntosh or even live in Inverness.
