Hello from Inverness

[macneighill]

Ah, now with your spelling of the name I suspect we're from the same clan?

Yes sir, my surname was changed with my 5th Great Grandfather from "Neilson" to "Nelson". My family came over to America in the early 1700's (North Carolina), from Argyll (we're not sure of exactly where). We're still researching it. What we do have is, family history passed down, from generation to generation (along with some actual records . . but only from the USA). So, we're taking it lightly . . right now (as its just "word of mouth"). We're looking into many different records and such, to support this information though. Family history also says that, our "Nelson's" ("Neilson's") come from, not only Western Scotland but, also Northern Ireland.

The difficulty with researching my line is first, my surname is the 39th most common here in America (out of 89,000 surnames . . according the "US Census Bureau") and, the 387th most common surname in Great Britain, Isle of Man and Wales (where it is stated to exist over 68,000 surnames) and, not to mention the 189th most common in Scotland (as per "General Register Office for Scotland").

And, to include the "Neilson" surname. It's the 3,611th most common in Great Britain, Isle of Man and Wales . . the 229th most common in Scotland (again, as per the "General Register Office for Scotland") . . the 5,114th most common surname in America (according the "US Census Bureau").

All of this coupled with very few documents found on my family's history/lineage, thus so far . For some reason, my family has had a "history" of hiding information. During the early 1800's, my family had married many Cherokee women. The majority of the men (to include my 4th Great Grandfather), hid their spouse's Native blood from the Government, for fear of being removed from their lands. This was during the "Trail of Tears".