As a by and by, one of my main lines, in Moidart Argyll was MacIsaac. Family morphed into MacDonald through the mid to late 1800s... BMD certs written up as 'MacIsaac or MacDonald', then just became MacDonald. Took me a while to figure out.
May help Annie for you with searches through this period too.
Monica
Hi Monica,
Jane's mother Flora MacIsaac, although born Canna, was married to my 2 x g grandfather's brother Donald Steele 1822 on Uist where they had 7 kids & both died there.
Flora b c1801, her parents were Neil MacIsaac & Catherine MacArthur (although of course they are not my relatives), do they feature in your MacIsaac's
Daughter Jane had moved to Argyll as a single girl (missing from census on Uist) & married there as I discovered from her death cert.
Flora was visiting Jane in 1861 at Glenmasson.
I had the Uist census transcription & Jane's father was down as a widower which I knew to be wrong as I had Flora's death cert. 1866
So when I had my Anc. "Prescription" I found where she was (Glenmasson) in 1861 & of course daughter Jane & hubby.
I would just love a pic of the place to tie it all in
There were/are many MacIsaac's on Uist & I have them on another branch of my Steele line but they were Uist & Eriskay born.
I just found it amusing the name being transcribed as McKeesie
& how I fell upon them is a mystery as I was searching for Flora Steele born Canna so it was a good find but I spent hours trawling all the records as I knew she was still alive then
You wonder why the change of name but of course it's unlikely you will ever find out
According to the history of the name Steele, they started out as McLean's from Coll but on escaping, took the name Steele from the name of the Skipper but they records don't go back far enough either so I will never know for sure
Annie