William Mackay d.1891 Portanancon, Laid, Durness

[Maia261]

First of all apologies for the long post and the needle in a haystack….if I’ve done this wrong just rap me over the knuckles, I’m a fast learner. 
I have got stuck here with my gggGrandfather who I think was born about 1818 in Sutherland. From old papers that I have I learnt that he went to Lochs, Isle of Lewis as a Schoolmaster from Durness. He married Marion Montgomery in 1853, they had a son, William Morrison Mackay on 22/04/1854. William Sr. then abandoned his wife and only son and went to Edinburgh sometime in 1854 where he was a Sometimes Clerk, Collector Of Police.

He returned to Durness frequently to visit his cousins for months at a time. He only attempted once to contact his son, who by this time was living in Inverness, this contact was by letter in 1884.

It was on one of these visits to his cousins in Laid that William Sr. died on 05/10/1891.
Other documents I have make reference to William Sr’s. cousins Donald Campbell, who was the informant of his death. I have a draft will dated 1882 giving his address as 3 Saunders Street, Edinburgh where he intends for his cousins Orina Mckay residing at Sangomore, Durness, Betsy Campbell residing at Loch Eriboll, Donald Campbell residing at Loch Eriboll or the Reverend James Ross, Minister of the Free Church of Scotland, Durness to be Executors and Beneficiaries.

I have a letter from a Hector Mackay, dated 26/12/1833 with the address given as Gobnanurishgach, Strathmore. I think this may well be a mis-spelling of Gobernuisgach.

I also have a letter from an Angus Mackay, Sangomore dated 26/06/1885. I also have a letter from a Mrs Ina Morrison, Laid, Durness, Lairg dated 18/06/1890 addressed to “My dear cousin”.

I have managed to find a birth on IGI for an O’Rina McKay on 24 Nov 1831 in Durness to a Hector McKay or Mcablie. Maybe I’m jumping to conclusions here but I think this O’Rina could be the cousin mention before, with her father being the Hector who wrote the letter, this would make Hector William Sr’s. Uncle......maybe.
Looking forward to any help at all on this one.

Lynn

P.S. William Morrison Mackay and his mum Marion Montgomery ended up inheriting all William Mackay Sr’s money which amounted to over £400, a good amount in the 1890’s and just deserts I think.

[Piglet01]

Welcome to Rootschat.

I take it you're trying to go back a generation.    William McKays snrs death entry should give his parents name - including mothers maiden surname and name of informant - often a family member.
This can be downloaded today from www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk - a pay per view site.  £6 allows for 5 downloads - if you're lucky enough to identify a relative 1st time.

With the info on both parents - there's a facility on the IGI to do a search for any siblings that he may have had.  Either way, that's the way to go.  Do you have him in census records?  Do you have Marion and son on census records?

Regards,   Steve   :O)

[merryhow]

 Hi Lynn, could William have been born much later than 1818?
The reason I ask is because a check of FreeCEN showed this,  1851 Census Civil Parish REAY, Eccl. Parish REAY.

WILLIAM S MCKAY U 18 Teacher of Day School  Born WICK Caithness.

Taking the parents for the census the IGI give us,

 WILLIAM MCKAY b 19th Nov 1831, ch 28th Nov 1831,Wick,Caithness.(extracted entry)

Father - Charles, Mother - Williamina Stewart.

Don't know if you have this.

MARION MONTGUMERY b May 1832, ch 12th Mar 1834 LOCHS, Ross and Cromarty. (extracted entry)

Father - Donald, Mother - Flora McKenzie
 
Their ages would tie in nicely although it is possible that Marion married someone 14yrs. older than herself. Another thought, would a 23yr. old not be more likely to head for the Big City than a 36yr. old who had spent all his life in rural areas.

Something to think about anyway

  Val 

[Maia261]

Hi there,

Thank you both for your replies.

Unfortunately due to circumstances I don't have a credit card so Scotland's People is quite limited for me. I have tried to find alternative ways to pay but without much luck......I could do with a DD facility on there.  

I haven't had a lot of luck either with FreeCen and can't seem to find a William or Wm that would fit although there are a couple that could be Marion Montgomery in 1841 and I have found an entry on IGI that could be Marion.......I was writing this as you posted Val. 

I never really considered that William Sr could have been younger - I searched on Scotland's People for deaths in 1891 in Durness and found 1 which gave the birth year as 1818, I started off with a much broader birth year range.  From experience of the Sutherland area I know that big age gaps between couples, with the male being older, is the norm rather than the exception there. I'm with you regarding the 23 yo being more likely to head for the big city than the 36 yo, I'm going to run another search for his death on Scotland's People, see what I can come up with.

I also have a certificate at home which shows that William completed a Navigation Course in Stornoway, it was quite a while before he married Marion so this could maybe give an indication of how old he was when he completed it, I'll check it when I go home. Although he could well have been in the Sea Cadets, were they about in the 1830's?

I'm planning going to Inverness Library this weekend so maybe I'll be able to get a bit further there, I just posted on here in the hope that it may ring a few bells with some-one.

Kind regards
Lynn

[Maia261]

I'm so excited I just had to let you all know.......at least I won't receive the strange looks from fellow Rootschatters that I'm receiving from my family right now as I jump about the dining room screaming.

I have just found the following wonderful website and I have found confirmation that Donald and Flora MacKenzie were Marion's parents - I have also found a whole branch of a family in one fell swoop!

http://www.hebrideanconnections.com/Details.aspx?subjectid=45139

William and Marion Montgomery also had a daughter that I never knew about, Flora Mackay, born in 1861, so he hung about for a while before abandoning them all. Confirmation of this also comes about from the address Flora was living at when she got married - 49 King Street, Inverness. This is the house William Morrison Mackay bought with his father's inheritence.

Some of their details need corrected as they say that William Snr. died shortly after his marriage to Marion Montgomery but this cannot be the case as Flora was born in 1861.

Off to check out all these lovely new relatives now.

I still don't know William Snrs. parents but right now that doesn't seem to matter so much. 

Lynn

[Maia261]

I have now downloaded William Mackay's death entry from 1891 which shows his age as 73, which would point to a birth year of c.1818, that's of course if the informant knew it. The place of death was Laid, Parish of Durness (no address). The informant was George Mackay (Occupier), in one of the documents I have it makes reference to William Mackay owning 2 properties in Durness but I am unable to find out anymore regarding this.

The death entry shows William as illegitimate and his (reported) father as Hector Mackay, Captain (Army) and his mother as Barbara Morrison, Domestic Servant.

Even armed with this information I have been unable to find a record for William's birth, does anyone have any suggestions?

Lynn

[Kayden]

If you log onto Google Family Tree go to page 3 Visit Scotland/Ancestral Scotland and fill in the holiday form you will get an e-mail with 10 free credits to use on Scotlands People. You need to get the password and user name and then log onto Scotlans People, credits and use voucher. You can then do a small search.  1 credit to view and 5 credits to download.  Hope this will be helpful to you in your search.  Good luck
 

[Maia261]

Many thanks Kayden, I had tried that before but was very silly and truthful with my answers and said I came from Scotland......never received any emails or voucher code from them - I tried twice before. For this purpose I'm now from Ireland and they came through straight away. 

Lynn

[SpacemanSpiff]

Hello Lynn

I know its now a number of years since the last post...but are you still looking for information on this part of your family tree? I am interested in what happened to William Junior, and have some information that relates to the Montgomerys of 15 Balallan.

Cheers

A