Hi Ann
This is what I have on Mac/McPhees from Barra. It came from my 1st cousin.
I was able to get in touch with a man, McNeil and corresponded with his wife Rhoda. They have connections with Cape Breton, visitors tracing their ancestry to Barra. According to him Alexander’s parents were Eion or John MacPhee and Janet. I think her maiden name was MacKinnon. Apparently, the church records there were not kept up and so a lot of information is missing. My husband, daughter and I visited Barra in 2013. We met the McNeils and they were very helpful. They drove us to a place called Allasdale and explained that our 3rd great grandmother was born there. He suggested we walk over the farm which we did and found the remains of a settlement. Since then I have been looking on scotlandspeople.govt.uk. I’ve found Eion and Janet in Craigston Barra. I can’t find their records, only those of children they had baptised. I think they had two children before emigrating to Big Pond Cape Breton NS.
Hi Wendy, found something! Eion/Jonathan MacPhee is 60 in the 1871 Census, Janet/Jessie MacKinnon was born in Allasdale, Barra 19/9/1806. In this census their children are Michael 26, Allan 25, Mary 29, Neil 38, Alexander 35. According to my contacts in Barra, Eion/Jessie’s children Hector, was born 23/7/1829 in Bruerish, Barra and Ann 19/10/1830 was born in Allasdale. The others were born in NS. Neil in 1833, Alastair/Alexander in 1836, Mary in 1842, Allan 1845. Michael is not mentioned but he must have been born in 1844.
Alastair MacKinnon and Mary MacIntyre are Janet/Jessie’s parents. Mary MacKinnon was her sister and married Donald MacPhee (24/1/1826). These are first cousins to our family. They lived in the front lands of Big Pond and our family lived in the back lands of Big Pond.
