MacDonald or Gillis from Isle of Lewis - circa 1804

[Nathan]

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/

I agree that what I have is vague. We know that Angus was a native of Lewis, approx when he was born and when he died. We know he had a brother named John. We know his mother was Margaret Gillis and her father was a minister. We know Angus' father was named Malcolm.

Unfortunately, we don't know for sure whether either of both of his parents (Malcolm MacDonald and Margaret Gillis) were orn on Lewis. When either was born, married or died. The names of their other children that didn't come to Canada, what Malcolm did for a living etc... so yeah. Needle in a haystack!

I didn't see a man named Malcolm MacDonald with two sons named Angus and Jon (and a daughter) from Lewis on any of the ship registers I looked at on Ancestry.ca a few months ago when I was paying for the full membership.

My worry is that I could pay through the nose trawling incomplete databases and coming up empty. The existing records are far from comprehensive in the late 1700s and not all of them are even online. Thought I'd post this here in the hopes that there was a cousin out there that had already hit the jackpot. Either that or someone with a full subscription to one of these databases that wouldn't mind taking a boo.

I'll check your link though as it looks quite interesting and I very much appreciate the assistance you've offered so far.

Slàinte!