MacDonald or Gillis from Isle of Lewis - circa 1804

[Nathan]

I was at the U of T library today and decided to follow up on something for Nathan. I'll detail the process in case anyone else is interested in getting beyond what is available online.

Firstly, thank you very much. You are generous with your time and intellect. I greatly appreciate it. Hope it went well with your own family research!

At U of T, I went up to the reference section and looked at Whyte's book, which I mentioned earlier in this thread. In there I found a reference for a Malcolm MacDonald who emigrated to Nova Scotia from the Hebrides before 1810, was married to Mary Gillis, and had a son named Angus. If was was of a mind to do so, they could also follow the citation in Whyte's book to the original archival documents and then go see them or order copies.

Now, this is only a partial match for the info that Nathan provided earlier because there are some discrepancies. The Malcolm I found is listed as coming from Canna, not Lewis and has other children, but no John. I'll send the full reference to Nathan for him to compare to the other info he already has. Nonetheless, it might be worth considering, if only because record keeping in those days was a bit "loose"... my 3 X great grandfather was born in 1801, 1803, 1805, or 1811 and in either Scotland or Ireland, depending on which Census or church record you look at

It's a pretty common name and there's actually another Malcolm MacDonald in the Antigonish area that many people are descended from. Still, something could have been transcribed wrong. He was certainly from Lewis. Not sure how I would ever determine if it was him with several mistakes (Canna, no John) or if it was someone else.

Also, I found out that there was a census taken in Cape Breton in 1811, when it was a separate colony from Nova Scotia. Not all of the island would have been surveyed and some parts of it have not survived, but there is a "Malcom McDonald" listed.
http://www.capebretongenweb.com/1811...tml#unnumbered

Note the difference in spelling. Searching in online indexes can be a pain when one must do a new search for each alternate spelling... Ancestry.ca is pretty good at some alternate spellings or phonetically similar names, but misses other ones
One more thing, is a potential land grant to Malcom McDonald:

"1809
McDonald, Malcom
Petition to Nepean: Petitioner, age 35, was born on the Island of Barray, Great Britain, and has resided at Bras d'Or the past five years. He is married and has four children. He asks a title to the land on which he lives. He is the uppermost settler on the southern side of the Narrows."

Cape Breton no.: 499
NSARM microfilm: 15790

Well the spelling isn't a problem. On Angus' grave stone and obit, the name is spelled McDonald. However, Malcolm never went to Cape Breton. My family stayed on mainland Nova Scotia for another 4 generations before my great-grandfather moved to Cape Breton, so the Malcolm in the census is another guy. From Barra not Lewis and asking for a land grant in Cape Breton. My Malcolm arrived in Pictou and established himself at Arisaig where he was buried by the shore.

I found that reference in the Nova Scotia (virtual) Archives:
http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/land/

This may all be old news to you, Nathan. If so, I apologize and hope that other people may at least get some benefit out of the research process. I know you are hoping for records back in Scotland, but I might at least help you get you some leads to check out or narrow your search, which is better than a genealogical brick wall

And I can't tell you how much I appreciate the effort. Doesn't look like we hit pay dirt here but you certainly went above and beyond the call of duty. Trying to find a particular Malcolm or Angus McDonald in North Eastern Nova Scotia or the Hebrides is a needle in a haystack type of exercise. Thanks again!