Western highlands and Islands LOOKUP OFFER

[Blue-Sten]

Hello,

Do you ever go over to Cladach Kirkibost? I am trying to find out where some relatives are buried.  I have the dates and names but can not get there myself!

Many Thanks

Fiona

[Cedas]

Can you give me more details as to where this is?

[Blue-Sten]

Hi,

North Uist.

Thanks

Fiona

[Cedas]

Visually that's very near - I can see the island from our croft but I have never been.  If I do go any time - I'll let you know.

[Blue-Sten]

Do you know if people tend to be buried in one main cemetery? I am trying to locate the graves but have had no luck so far!!!

[Cedas]

Communities on the islands are so small -- they are likely to be buried all in one place

[Cedas]

Have today met  a genealogist who specialises in Skye and has transcribed lots of the MIs - check out her web site www.skye-kin.co.uk

[angusm]

On the 'one burial place' theory, pre-motor car it will have been a very long walk carrying a coffin on the rota system even on relatively small islands. Benbecula has effectively come down to the one graveyard at Nunton in modern times but at one time there were at least two others. South Uist, having given up the historic burial sites at Howmore, has concentrated at Daliburgh and Ardkenneth. As for North Uist, I can think of a number of past and present burial places, including a very attractive site on a hillside at Balranald serving the western side of the island a long way from Lochmaddy. I have a feeling one or more churches also have accompanying gravestones.

[HelenO]

Hello AngusM.  This message below I sent to a subject more specific to South Uist than Benbecula, but I received very little response.   One person responded with help as to the Gaelic spellings of some of the place names I mentioned.  But, as I needed information about burial places, I looked through responses on RootsChat, and came across your response to the Western Highlands and Islands subject.  [Is any of that comprehensible at all?]  What it amounts to is that I need help, and hope I may be able to call upon your expertise again. 

This is the first request that I sent: Am attempting to trace a Donald McPhee who emigrated from his native home in South Uist or Benbecula bound for Cape Breton, NS about the year 1827 or 1828.  There are several possibilities that help identify this particular Donald McPhee among many others of that surname at that time and in that area.  Quite likely, “my” Donald is married to a Mary MacLean and lived in small settlement in South Uist known as ‘Garryfluich’; their records might be in the area known as  ‘Iochdar’ and the parish of Ardkenneth.  Based on his story here in Canada, Donald McPhee was born in South Uist about 1795.  My quest now is to try to confirm the identity of my Donald McPhee and, if at all possible, to learn the names of his parents. 

This is the second: My McPhee / MacLean ancestors were Roman Catholic, and I know it is almost impossible to get anything from those records, especially as early as 1820s.  I am a little hopeful, however, that I might find some cemetery or burial records in South Uist that would indicate the possible parents for this couple who left at that early date.  My Donald McPhee died 'over here' in 1878 at age 84 (b. 1794); his wife, Mary MacLean, gave birth to two children in Cape Breton: Donald John (1828) and Christy (1831), before she apparently died and Donald married again later in the 1830s.  Possibly the Scottish naming pattern might indicate that Donald's father was a John McPhee in the area of (gulp!) Gearraidh Fliuch.  So, my need is for suggestions and advice as to the chances for local Catholic burial records in South Uist. 

Since you responded on this subject and the 'one-burial-place-theory' could you weigh in on this for my McPhee / MacLean quest at all?  I hope so....

HelenO
Ottawa, Canada