Malcolm NICHOLSON/Mary Ann HARDING arrived Australia on Lord William Bentinck

[SuzM]

Hi All

I am trying to trace my Great Great Grandfather and Great Great Grandmother's patents.

Great Great Grandfather: Malcolm Nicholson, Great Great Grandmother: Mary Ann Harding. Arrived on the ship Lord William Bentinck, departed London on the 15 June 1837 (the Captain - Captain Doutty), arrived Port Jackson, New South Wales, Australia on the 8 October 1837 with 3 children. I have the record for them arriving in the New South Wales, Australia, Unassisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1826-1922.

Malcolm was born abt 1806, Isle of Skye, Scotland, died 3 November 1866, in Taree, New South Wales, Australia.

Married: 28 March 1829, in Glasgow, Scotland

Mary Ann was born abt 1806, Scotland, died 1 Aug 1875, in Manning River, New South Wales, Australia.

The are both buried at Dawson River (Taree) General Cemetery, New South Wales, Australia.

Appreciate any help in finding out who the parents are.

Cheers
Suz

[PrueM]

Hi SuzM 

There is a Malcom NICOLSON [sic] showing on the IGI as being baptised in Portree, on the Isle of Skye in 1805 - punch in his name into this search form to find his details:

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=igi/search_IGI.asp&clear_form=true

Parents are shown as Donald NICOLSON and Margaret MCDONALD.
Scotland's People website has the image from the parish register - you will need to buy credits in order to view it:

http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

You will also find Malcolm and Mary Ann's marriage on the IGI with her surname showing as HARDIE - this is also on Scotland's People, but there is no image available to view online - you would have to purchase the image directly from them.

I hope that helps a bit 

Cheers
Prue

[PrueM]

P.S.  Forgot to say "Welcome to Rootschat"!!  And good to see you are researching McKays...I'm a McKay myself 

[SuzM]

Hi PrueM

Nice to meet you. Thanks for the welcome and the fast reply.

Yes, I knew about most of the info on the IGI. The only part that I did not know was the difference..... Harding/Hardie.

Sadly, I will not be able to use the Scotland's People website.

P.S.  Forgot to say "Welcome to Rootschat"!!  And good to see you are researching McKays...I'm a McKay myself

That's good news  Let me know if you think there might be some connection..... My mother told me that the spelling of the name Mackay had changed through time, and that they were descendants from Vikings.

Cheers
Suz

[PrueM]

To be honest, for the baptism there is probably not much more information on the original parish register page to be seen on SP than you can get from the IGI - the only difference might be that you could get a place of residence for the family, which would make it easier to trace them back if the parents have common names.

The marriage record could be worth purchasing - depending on the parish and time period, you may get parents' names, places of residence etc....but it's a gamble as you may get nothing.   

The origins of the Highland clans is a hot topic, I wouldn't like to speculate as to where we came from...I guess if you go back far enough we all came from Africa!  One theory I recently read was that the McKays/Mackays were originally a northern Irish group who went over to Scotland sometime in the last milennium.  There is probably a DNA testing project somewhere in the world looking at where the clans may have come from.  I might have a look    Personally I haven't got my McKays any further back than about 1720 when they were in Morayshire.

Cheers
Prue