1
Lanarkshire / Re: McDonald's of Crawfordjohn
« on: Wednesday 28 August 24 18:25 BST (UK) »
I have solved where the McDonalds of Leadhills came from.
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Pages: [1]
2
Lanarkshire / Re: McDonald's of Crawfordjohn
« on: Friday 02 August 24 17:57 BST (UK) »
Re: 4th June, 2023
I stated a couple of things which met resistance. The first one about slavery in the mines of Scotland. This was quite true as prisoners were made slaves, especially prisoners of war. This lasted until the 18 hundreds. An owner could move his slaves around to different mines.
Two, I said that it was not unusual for Highlanders to change their names especially when moving south. After over 40 years of research I have found the origins of my McDonald ancestors. It has cost quite a bit but ftDNA have supplied me with YDNA 700 results. My earlier results, 25 years ago were presented to Clan Donald DNA BUT were not typical of the clan.
These new results show that these Leadhills McDonalds were NOT McDonalds but belonged to another clan. I am the direct descendant of that clan's first chief. I also think I know which part of the Highlands they came from.
I do hope to solve this soon.
I stated a couple of things which met resistance. The first one about slavery in the mines of Scotland. This was quite true as prisoners were made slaves, especially prisoners of war. This lasted until the 18 hundreds. An owner could move his slaves around to different mines.
Two, I said that it was not unusual for Highlanders to change their names especially when moving south. After over 40 years of research I have found the origins of my McDonald ancestors. It has cost quite a bit but ftDNA have supplied me with YDNA 700 results. My earlier results, 25 years ago were presented to Clan Donald DNA BUT were not typical of the clan.
These new results show that these Leadhills McDonalds were NOT McDonalds but belonged to another clan. I am the direct descendant of that clan's first chief. I also think I know which part of the Highlands they came from.
I do hope to solve this soon.
3
Lanarkshire / Re: McDonald's of Crawfordjohn
« on: Sunday 04 June 23 14:49 BST (UK) »
As a McDonald myself I also have lots of info about my family. You may have read an interesting book about Leadhills which was on the Net for a long time but has now disappeared. The author states that one of the McDonalds in the early years of Leadhills was a smelter, which is a very skillful and dangerous job. So where did he get this skill - not at Leadhills. One of the McDonalds was also called Badenoch - was he from there? One of the workings in the Leadhills mine was named McDonald. As you may know the miners at this time were slaves in Scotland and their owners could move them around. The owners of Leadhills in the beginning were also owners at Tyndrum (ring a bell?). What I am trying to find out is where they went to - that is why I named a few places which some people might have thought possible but one couldn't rely on them. A "cousin" of mine in Canada will have it that their possible origins were in Glencoe. My DNA results on two sites - Ftdna and Ancestry show that we have relatives in the Urguhart Clan. Which isn't far from the massacre. I am open to serious suggestions about them - not the most glamorous that they ie are related to Scottish chiefs and Flora McDonald.
PS. As you know so much about my family, I haven't seen your DNA results.
PS. As you know so much about my family, I haven't seen your DNA results.
4
Lanarkshire / Re: McDonald's of Crawfordjohn
« on: Saturday 27 May 23 15:14 BST (UK) »
The McDonalds at Leadhills were skilled miners before they arrived there. So the question is where did they mine before - there were lead mines on Islay and Ireland. As some of John and Bethia (Neilson's) descendants spell their surname as Macdonald one must say that they were Scottish. As for John and Bethia's marriage (1739) in Nether Abbingtoun, onthe same page are the marriages of William Neilson and Mary Neilson in Lamington in 1738. Same family as Bethia? Also Scottish women did not give up their surnames until a long time after this, so Bethia remains as Neilson not McDonald. Did they emigrate to Canada? USA? to Perthshire? Another mining area? John didn't fight at Culloden either.
Pages: [1]