MacDonalds from Skye to London?

[Rosinish]

Simple answer is no as it happened worldwide between illiteracy, pronunciations, accents & even families themselves changed surname spellings to differentiate themselves as many forenames were the same in the same areas.

I have one family name with 8 variations to date & have seen more although I can't afford to check if they are my family yet 

Annie

[Rosinish]

Yes, it's frustrating. I've found some details on the marriage between Henry Thomas and Eliza Ann Hurle, but it doesn't have any details of the parents.

Is that typical for the era?

Yes, we would be very lucky to get anything more than the names of the bride & groom and if they belonged to that parish......occupation & witness names were a bonus. No parents names or addresses.

Annie

[Boreades]

Just this weekend I was talking with a McDonald whose father was also a McDonald. But his grandmother was a McDonnell in Northern Ireland. For some reason his father had moved from Northern Ireland to Scotland, and changed his name from McDonnell to McDonald as he did so. Which nobody minded, but it caused chaos when he applied for a passport and had to produce a birth certificate!