Tracing Kerr ancestors back to Scotland from Nova Scotia

[hanes teulu]

A long shot re Hannah, wife of Alexander, maiden name unknown. There is one digitalized Nova Scotia newspaper on line that might have listed the marriage - see Acadian Recorder. 
https://lamns.ca/initiatives/nova-scotia-historical-newspapers-online/

It is not searchable - that is, popping a name in a search field, hitting enter and out pour the results/hits. Rather, it is browsable - call up an edition and read it. From what I have seen "match and despatch" (there doesn't appear to be reporting of "hatches") usually appear on page 3, but not in a fixed location. It's slow work, akin to visiting the local library and trawling thru' microfilm images (oh happy, pre-online days!).
 

[McJenn]

I am still worried that almost all the recorded Cathel Kerrs were from Assynt in Sutherland, but your Castle was said to be from Argyll.

I can't imagine anyone confusing Sutherland with Argyll, because Ross and Cromarty and Inverness-shire lie between them.

(The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders regiment of the army was founded much later, in 1881, so that doesn't come into it.)

Me too. The concentration of the name in Assynt is compelling, but the two references to Argyll are not insignificant. It's possible that the two place names starting with A were later conflated as the story was passed from Alexander Sr. to son Castle to son Alexander Dennis. Or perhaps the ship to Nova Scotia departed from Argyll and that's the place name that was remembered. At least it's good to have two regions to concentrate my search.

[McJenn]

A long shot re Hannah, wife of Alexander, maiden name unknown. There is one digitalized Nova Scotia newspaper on line that might have listed the marriage - see Acadian Recorder. 
https://lamns.ca/initiatives/nova-scotia-historical-newspapers-online/

Thanks. I looked through a few of those (you were right about page 3 - that made it easier). Most of the listings were folks from Halifax and I didn't see much in marriages or deaths outside the southern part of NS. I'll poke around a bit more when I have a chance.

[McJenn]

I am still worried that almost all the recorded Cathel Kerrs were from Assynt in Sutherland, but your Castle was said to be from Argyll.

.

Well here's a fascinating bit of news....

I haven't done a DNA test yet as I haven't researched the privacy issues and I wanted to have a very thorough understanding of the history and documentation behind my family lines first. Today I reached out to my three male Kerr cousins to see if they had done DNA testing and if they might be willing to do YDNA testing to see what we find in the paternal line. I got this suggestion from the Kerr Family DNA Genealogy Project (https://www.familytreedna.com/group-join.aspx?Group=Carr).

Turns out one has already done Ancestry DNA and he gave me access to his site so I could review. Under the ethnicity estimate section, it says he's 3% Scottish. It says NO connection to Argyll & Bute. The only location in Scotland with a possible connection is Sutherland!

That seems like a good enough reason to keep going down this path!

[McJenn]

Yes, sometimes children can be quite old by the time they were baptised. I have one family in Scotland who baptised 5 children on the same day. I think because there had been a new church of their denomination built near to them, whereas before they would have had to go a long way to get to a church.
It's not uncommon to see two or three children baptised together - there could be a variety of reasons for this. Perhaps their parents were too busy to find the time, or unable to find the fee, or were sick, or away from home, or as above, or the church was just too far away to get to. Many reasons.

On this note, here's what I just read about Assynt.

ASSYNT, a parish, in the county of Sutherland, 30 miles (N. W. by W.) from Dornoch; containing the quoad sacra district of Stoer, and the village of Lochinver.
The parish church is situated within nine miles of the southern boundary of the parish, a situation extremely inconvenient for the people. The great bulk of the population live from twelve to eighteen miles away from the church.
Source: https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Assynt,_Sutherland,_Scotland_Genealogy

[wivenhoe]

At 1832 when the Will was written what do you know about the older children named....eg...location, marriages etc -

"my Daughter Margret, my Daughter Catherine, my Son Castle and my Son John"

[wivenhoe]

"Castle Kerr (~1792-1859) has been the centerpoint of my research. His son's bio says"

What bio?. Where are you seeing this?  Who is the author?.  When and where was it written?

[Forfarian]

On this note, here's what I just read about Assynt.

If you are into reading more about Assynt, you should read the full article on Assynt from the Statistical Account of Scotland. This was written in 1795 by the then minister: https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk/static/statacc/dist/viewer/osa-vol16-Parish_record_for_Assynt_in_the_county_of_Sutherland_in_volume_16_of_account_1/

There is also the New Statistical account, 50 years later, which is referenced in the article at FS. You can read that at https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk/static/statacc/dist/viewer/nsa-vol15-Parish_record_for_Assynt_in_the_county_of_Sutherland_in_volume_15_of_account_2/

In particular, the source quoted in the FS item (taken from a book published in 1846) omits completely any reference to the following sentence from the New Statistical Account: 'There is a Government or Parliamentary Church at Store, built in 1829. To this is attached a population of 1403, leaving upwards of 1700 scattered over a vast extent of inaccessible surface, as has already been described'.

(Digression - Parliamentary Churches were built at the expense of the government specifically to address the problem of populations who lived too far from their parish church to be able to attend church regularly, especially in winter. The kirk at Stoer is one of these, but it would have been built too late for 'your' Cathel's baptism, assuming of course that 'your' Castle was indeed one of the Stoer Cathels. See https://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Thomas-Telfords-Parliamentary-Kirks)

This https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2543749 is the old kirk referred to in the article. I don't suppose that the then minister would recognise the building as it is now. It's at Inchnadamph, near the east end of Loch Assynt.

[McJenn]

At 1832 when the Will was written what do you know about the older children named....eg...location, marriages etc -

"my Daughter Margret, my Daughter Catherine, my Son Castle and my Son John"

Nothing. The will was  the first I'd heard of them, and it's still all I've got. Do you think that these names are likely listed from oldest to youngest?

If so, the Katherine I have linked as Castle's sister is probably the wrong person.

This Margaret married in Digby and died in Malahide Elgin County Ontario like my family but is from Greenock, Renfrewshire and father's name is Robert Kerr.
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/sources/LHFQ-V99