My Scottish Ancestry

[MJB]

I've recently been doing some research, by recently, I mean over the past couple of years, and my I've, I mean my girlfriends mother (who is quite big on that stuff) and we've found out quite a bit; more than I would have ever though. She is Scottish, she easily traces herself back to MacGillivray clan. Having the last name Bergman, and having passed down knowledge of Prussian and German ancestors on my fathers side, I've always been known as the German guy haha. Even on my mothers side I have quite a bit of information on her fathers ancestors. I've always been curious of the Scottish bit on my maternal Grandmothers side, but the information is scarce. I've also wondered if having certain ancestors, if you can easily be linked to a clan.

So far what I know about that side of the family is my Great Grandmother was born with the last name Nicholson (maybe Nicolson in Scotland), She lived in Wick, which is almost as far north as you can get. Both of her parents and parents parents were from Wick, with exception to her grandfather, who was from Thurso, which a map tells me is pretty close to Wick. I have birthdates back until about the 1850s in Thurso and Wick, but any later then that, I lose basically all information except for names. I'm just curious if anyone has any incite into family's or clans around there. I'm not really sure what I'm expecting to get out of this, just kind of throwing it out there I suppose.

All the surnames branching off of that I have are; Bain, Harper, Banks, Nicolson and I see one female that was married to a Nicolson, but apparently was born a MacIntosh (just looking at the researched family tree I never noticed that MacIntosh there before, that's pretty interesting). Are these names all related to clans? Have they been integrated into them? Not really sure how that works... Am I related to any of YOU?!

Hope you enjoyed the tiny bit of heritage I could share and thanks for any input

[Theyoungkiltman]

guess i could be related to you a bit, my great great grandmother was a bain.

[georgeetta]

harper's Irish far as I know ..

Harper's of Pennsylvania ..Harper's Ferry .

th
d

Bains Mac Bean or MhuicBhain ??

[Ron Abbott]

I have ancestors who came not from Wick but from Orkney.....however they were surnamed Wick and one was the town piper of Kirkwall.

[Calgacus]

Hi MJB,

It looks like the name Nicolson probably has Norse (Viking) origins and means 'daughter of Olsen'. This ties in geographically with the link to Wick and Thurso as this area of Scotland was raided/settled quite heavily by the Vikings. 'Wick' is actually a Norse name, meaning 'harbour'.

There is a Clan Nicolson, and a Clan MacNeacail, though you are probably not directly related to either as the Clan Nicolson originates with a Nicolson from Edinburgh and the Clan MacNeacail with a Nicolson from Skye.

Here are the geographic distributions of the names you mention, from the 1881 census:-

Nicolson
http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/Ma...y=GB&type=name

Bain
http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/Ma...y=GB&type=name

Harper
http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/Ma...y=GB&type=name

Banks
http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/Ma...y=GB&type=name

MacIntosh
http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/Ma...y=GB&type=name


http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/Ma...y=GB&type=name

Mackintosh
http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/Ma...y=GB&type=name

And some Wikipedia info on the various clans/families:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Nicolson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Mackintosh

[David]

Hello MJB, I was on Dunmglass estate which I'm sure is the origin of clan MacGillivray yesterday. I'll see if I have any pictures of the place, if not I'll take some next week when I'm back there.

[Ceatharnach]

All the names you've listed - Bain, Harper, Banks, Nicholson, are common names up in Caithness and that part of the world. If you were to visit you'd probably find a lot are still living there. Nicholson has always struck me as a very northern Scots name, a bit like Sinclair- as soon as I saw it I immediately thought of somewhere like Caithness.

The surnames are indeed associated with clans though the Wick area would be considered by the 19th century to be a part of the Scottish Lowlands rather than the Highlands, and the clans you'd be associated with are more like powerful/influential lowland families than Highland clans or tribes. But yes, you seem to have a very "Caithness" Scottish connection there. It's a very distinct area with a strong Norse heritage as some here have already suggested.

Your ancestors would possibly have had knowledge of the Gaelic language (the Celtic language native to Scotland) if they lived in Thurso in the 1850s, as the language was still quite strong in that area until more recently than many people realise. They may have belonged to the more Lowland Scottish/Norse ethnic division though with names like Harper and Banks, so they likely spoke a very broad dialect of the Germanic Scots language as their native tongue.

This is how they may have spoken, if you are interested.

[Mike S]

Same with me MJB. I'm German (Prussian) on my father's side, and Scottish and Welsh on my mother's.

Moral to the story, don't make either of us angry!

[georgeetta]

macnicol,

dear gus check this..

somewhere I think I read that ..a MacLeod (Torquil dugh ??) married a Maicknicle ..or mia d or daughter fo chiedf of Maicknickle ..and the whole ..posterite was cut off ..

ie sounded like athe MacLeod on lewis or harris ..married a macnicol ..heiress and all became ..MacLeods after that .

more stuff to think about !

th
d

check thru Morrison clan book ..or clan pages ..