Allan McDonald, born 1836-37

[Eric Hatfield]

Hi,

I live in Australia and am trying to trace my GGGrandfather, who emigarted from Scotland in the 1850s or thereabouts. I am having difficulty because there are so many McDonalds, Inverness-shire was larger then than now, and names seemed to be sometimes flexible.

The information I have from marriage and death documentation in Australia is:

• Allan McDonald, born 1836-37 in Inverness-shire (which back then included places now in Argyll).
• Father: Donald McDonald, a miner. (I hadn't heard of mining in the Inverness area.)
• Mother: Mary. (However if have read that the English "Margaret" is equivalent to the Gaelic "Mairead", and I can believe that "Mairead" spoken in a Scottish accent to an Australian priest or government official might easily be written as Mary, so I think either Mary or Margaret could be correct.)

I haven't been able to find a family that meets all those details in either birth records or Censuses, and several families with one detail different. I have been using Ancestry.com, Family Search and Scotland's People.

Does anyone here have a family tree that could include these people, and can help me out please?

Thanks.

[Neale1961]

In order for someone to try to help, it would be best to provide more detail.

Where, when and to whom did Allan marry? Best to provide ALL information on the record.
What information about him is on the immigration record or passenger list?
Where and when did he die? Best to provide All information on that record.
When and where were his children born? What were their full names? Include middle names.

Have you searched for information about him in the newspapers?

[Eric Hatfield]

I have all that information in Australia, and I have searched newspapers in Australia, but not in Scotland.

• Allan (33) married Annie Foster (24) in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia in 1870. Parents: Donald (miner) & Mary McDonald; Thomas (Cook) [surname Foster not written] & Mary Dunn. Catholic Church. Witnesses were John and Bridget Foster.
• I cannot find any certain emigration record. He could have come on his own, with a brother, or with his parents. I feel the most likely one is on his own on the Alhambra in 1866, aged 30, but I only have him there as "A McDonald".
• He died aged 54 at Ballan near Ballarat, Victoria, in 1891. Parents: Donald & Mary. Annie died in Melbourne in 1915 and was buried at Ballan.
• He and Annie had 10 children, born between 1871 and 1888 in the Ballarat-Geelong area of Victoria:
  
  
  • Mary McDonald: 1871-1898 - My G-Grandmother.
  • Annie McDonald: 1872-1942
  • William Allan McDonald: 1875 - ?
  • Maggie (Margaret) McDonald: 1877 - ?
  • Flora McDonald: 1879 - ?
  • Catherine McDonald: 1881 - ?
  • Allan Roderick McDonald: 1882 - 1917
  • Agnes (sometimes Agnes Jean or Jane Agnes, etc) McDonald: 1884 - 1954
  • Lexey McDonald: 1886 - ?
  • Clara Mari McDonald: 1888 - ?

I haven't found if anyone else in his family came to Australia.

Thanks.

[Neale1961]

Just some preliminary thoughts.
•   His father was a “miner” – maybe in Australia (not Scotland) - perhaps he came in the 1850s during the gold rush.
•   Allan is quite a bit older than his wife – he may have reduced his age for his marriage. Therefore may have been born earlier than 1836 / 37.
•   Also note on the marriage that he signs his name – therefore is literate.
•   Religion – RC  might be significant when looking at passenger lists and birth records.

For example there is this RC baptism:
MCDONALD   ALLAN              parents: DONALD MCDONALD / MARGARET MCDONALD
7/5/1834   10/5/1834   ESKADALE, ST MARY'S

[Eric Hatfield]

Those are really good thoughts, thanks so much, I didn't think of those things.

• Yes, Ballarat was in a gold rush area. I forgot to mention that Allan is listed as an "overseer" from Ballark, a farm near Ballarat. But he and his father easily could have been miners in the 1850s or 1860s.
• I hadn't thought of him lowering his age, though my grandfather did the same, for each of his 2 weddings! It makes a difference.
• I'll check out the baptisms etc with that in mind, including the one you suggest.

Thanks a lot.

[Eric Hatfield]

Two other things.

1. Allan may not have been Catholic. His wife Annie certainly was, so he may have married in her church regardless of his own background. But it is certainly woreth keeping in mind.

2. How did you know he had signed the marriage form? Do you have a copy of it, or is there a way of knowing that from other records?

[Neale1961]

2. How did you know he had signed the marriage form? Do you have a copy of it, or is there a way of knowing that from other records?

I found your Ancestry Tree and you have the marriage record attached. It looks as if Annie and Allen both sign their names (right hand side).

[Eric Hatfield]

Ah, obvious! I should have thought of that! I was wondering if you had some way of finding out things like that. Thanks.

Yes, both could write. But Bridget (who I think may be Annie's aunt) could not, and neither her husband nor his brother (I think) were literate when they emigrated.

[Forfarian]

Inverness-shire (which back then included places now in Argyll).

Not strictly true. With a couple of very minor exceptions anywhere that was in Inverness-shire/County of Inverness is still in Inverness-shire/County of Inverness, and anywhere that was in Argyll(shire)/County of Argyll is still in Argyllshire/County of Argyll.

This map shows the pre-1975 boundaries of the Counties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_local_government_areas_in_Scotland_(1930%E2%80%931975)

However in 1975 (not quite 50 years ago) the Powers That Be thought fit to reorganise the structure of local government, and to revise the boundaries. The new Districts were given different names - parts of Inverness-shire went into Argyll and Bute; Skye and Lochalsh; Lochaber; Inverness; and Badenoch and Strathspey, all of which were part of Highland Region.

This map shows the boundaries of the short-lived Districts  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_government_areas_of_Scotland_(1975%E2%80%931996)

Then in 1995 They decided to do away with the two-tier system of local government, and abolished the Districts in Highland Region that had existed for only 20 years. So mainland Inverness-shire and Skye were amalgamated with Nairnshire, Caithness, Sutherland and mainland Ross and Cromarty to form the present Highland.

You will see if you compare the two maps that the north-western part of Argyllshire/County of Argyll became part of the new Lochaber District in 1975, and of Highland in 1996. However it did not become part of Inverness-shire/County of Inverness. The rest of Argyllshire/County of Argyll became part of Argyll and Bute District.

All of which is very annoying if you are interested in events that took place, and records that were created, before 1975.

Fortunately only two mainland parishes straddle the Argyllshire/Inverness-shire county boundary, namely Ardnamurchan and Kilmallie. Kilmallie is usually listed as part of Inverness-shire, as are the Small Isles, and Ardnamurchan as part of Argyllshire. So the only Argyllshire parish that you need to consider as a possible birthplace of your Donald is Ardnamurchan.

There was an earlier reorganisation of boundaries around 1890, which tinkered with the county and parish boundaries and affected some parishes that straddled county boundaries. The only areas transferred from Argyllshire to Inverness-shire were parts of the Small Isles (Eigg, Rum, Muck and Canna) and part of the parish of Kilmallie. There's a detailed list of what areas were were transferred where at https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/shennan/inverness. It mentions a short list of places transferred from Argyllshire to Inverness-shire, but no places were transferred from Inverness-shire to Argyllshire.

I hadn't heard of mining in the Inverness area.

There is no coal in Inverness-shire, but there are or were minor deposits of minerals all over the Highlands. The most frequent is ironstone, but without reading the relevant sections of all the New Statistical Account parish articles at https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk/static/statacc/dist/county/Inverness I can't think of an obvious way to find out where mining was active in the 1840s.

I haven't been able to find a family that meets all those details in either birth records or Censuses, and several families with one detail different. I have been using Ancestry.com, Family Search and Scotland's People.

See https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=714261.0