MacDonald or Gillis from Isle of Lewis - circa 1804

[CMcG]

Thanks for the helpful suggestions. I can't find any boats that arrived in Pictou from the Highlands in 1804. Of course there must have been ships, but the records are not all online. We haven't been able to tie Malcolm (perhaps Calum) to a particular land grant but Angus inherited Roderick MacDougall's land grant after he married his daughter.

My Canadian records are pretty up to date from Angus forward. What I'm looking for is probably:

a) A record of birth or christening for Angus.
b) A record of the marriage of Malcolm McDonald and Margaret Gillis in the Hebrides (prob Lewis, not sure which parish).
c) A written record of the existence of a Reverend Gillis with a daughter Margaret on Lewis at that time. He may have officiated over several weddings and funerals etc.. so if he lived, there should be some paper trail.

One issue is Margaret's name could be recorded as Maidread, Morag, Peggy... who knows...

Ya, alternate spellings make it tough, eh? The problem with trying to jump over the pond is the need to narrow it down to something smaller than "the Hebrides (prob Lewis)" or you'll be searching for records like a needle in a haystack. This is especially true when it comes to records that aren't online...

Ancestry.ca shows some ship listings arriving in Nova Scotia from Scotland that might match your family. Not for 1804, but record keeping was a bit "loose" back in those days. For example, I have three different birth years for my 3 X great grandfather The brief ancestry.ca references come from:

Whyte, Donald. 1986. A Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to Canada before Confederation. Toronto: Ontario Genealogical Society.

It's supposed to contain "Date and port of arrival. Name of ship, place of origin, place of destination, date of birth and death, parentage, occupation, and other historical and family data may also be provided."

If you're ready to dig for records in the Hebrides, check out GENUKI: Scotland for a bunch of resources and links: http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/