The Highland Granny Mystery

[cessna152towser]

I had long known that both grandparents on my father's side were from families of Paisley weavers, and that my maternal grandfather, although of Irish parentage could trace his ancestry back to a Dutch supporter of Prince William, and when genealogy research became much easier in recent times with the advent of the internet my researches were chiefly a matter of filling in the detail on these three of my four lines of ancestry.

My maternal grandmother, Jane McLeod McNair (1881-1961) had been brought up in Paisley by a family named Dougan who were of Irish origin. I was always told that she came to them as a baby from the Isle of Skye. This belief was supported by my cousin, who asserted that granny came from Portree on the Isle of Skye. Further credence came from the fact that my grandparents had lived in Portree for a short time, where my grandfather had been the first motor car mechanic on the island, about a hundred years ago. Lack of demand for his skills had led to them returning to the lowlands after about six months.

My genealogy research has now shown that she was born in Paisley, and that her parents were in fact a William McNair, a thread dyer in Paisley, and Maggie McLeod, born in Dunfermline. The McNair line leads back to Paisley weavers, while William McNair's mother was a Williamson from Ireland. The McNairs were related to the Dougans through at least two marriages.

Maggie McLeod died from tuberculosis when my grandmother was six months old and William McNair remarried. Granny and her three siblings were handed over to the Dougans. Her brother and sisters all died young from tuberculosis.

Maggie McLeod's parents were both born in Paisley, but lived in Dunfermline for a time before returning to Paisley. Her father William McLeod was a thread dyer. The only record I can find of his parents is that they were named in his death certificate as having been a Daniel McLeod and a Mary McDonald. There were many McLeod/McDonald marriages in Scotland in the late 1700's/early 1800's. Her mother was a Mary Wallace, daughter of a Paisley weaver, Robert Wallace and his wife a Mary McAllister.

So no highland grandmother despite the long held belief. I have been unable to establish any Isle of Skye ancestor, other than the tenuous fact that the seat of Clan McLeod is at Dunvegan Castle on the island.

[Kiltedmusiclover]

Good to find another distant Wallace cousin!

All kidding aside, sounds like you have found some solid information.
I always love it when find I something that validates some
family story or oral history.
In your case it is what I call a partial truth; some fact some myth mixed together.

Good luck in your continued quest.

[gilmore]

What internet resources do you use to track down your ancestors? It sounds as if they are full of information.

BTW I have a Duggan ancestor, John Duggan, born in Ulster in 1690, died in Bertie County, North Carolina, 1754. His Duggan descendants still live in the rural middle Georgia area that my mother's family has been in for some 200 years.

[cessna152towser]

What internet resources do you use to track down your ancestors? It sounds as if they are full of information.

I'm a member of Ulster Genealogical and Historical Guild and also of Ancestry.co.uk. The Ancestry membership for £80 per year gives you the tools for building a family tree, searches for commonality with people listed on other members' trees and gives access to Scottish and English census records. I could upgrade to membership of Ancestry.com which costs £200 per year and see worldwide records but have not considered it necessary - a few of the relatives who emigrated to Canada and to Hawaii have joined my family tree and provided a lot of information from there. I'm also registered with www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk on a pay per view basis which gives access to birth, death and marriage information.

I haven't done much research into the Dougans as they are not my relations by blood. I was keen to learn who my grandmother would have regarded as her brothers, sisters aunts and uncles when they raised her so I did some limited work and found that the patriarch Charles Dougan came from Ireland to Scotland in the mid 1800's and that was as far as I investigated that line, so yes they could be your relations. I suspect that grandfather being brought up in Paisley, Scotland by his Irish parents and grandmother having been brought up in Paisley, Scotland by the Irish family who adopted her gave them something in common which may have brought them together.

[gilmore]

Those prices for ancestry.com seem a bit high there in the UK. I joined last January when they had a special of $90 for a year's subscription. I haven't found it very useful, except for the US census records, but then my family has been doing genealogical research for many years and already has most of the info available through ancestry.com. It does save making the 30 minute drive across our traffic congested city during business hours to the federal archives whenever I want to do a census search. I can get an idea in the middle of the night, get online and track it down while it is fresh in my mind.

Scotlandspeople.gov.uk seems horribly expensive, GBP 5 to view a will, GBP 6 just to search through 30 pages--and that must be done within 90 days, viewing those images at 5 credits each. It would seem to be cheaper to do it the old fashioned way and save up one's money until one was at dead ends in the US, then go to Scotland and search the records in person.