Re: Cameron or Dow? Banffshire, Scotland
-
In reply to:
Re: Cameron or Dow? Banffshire, Scotland
Margaret Asprey 9/25/12
Hi Margaret,
Interesting you link up John McPhaile with the Earl of Moray. Did you find his death record from over that way?
I did and thought John have may have moved off Ayeon Farm and went to live over near the other castle. I agree about son William possibly heading of to adventure/work in Canada fur trapping. That makes a lot of sensed to me.
I am in rather a quandary about William naming his first born son James, which does not fit with traditional naming as per family traditions. For a start I thought it could be James McPhail trying to escape the shame of the Glencoe Massacre in 1692. The platoon was disbanded after this horrific event. Story had it that Campbell, the head guy of this platoon disappeared to France, or drank himself to death within a few years. James McPhail was his second in command. It is quite possible that James could have got protected by the landed gentry but these soldiers were definitely pro the British. He could have disappeared in to Fort William and taken another job.
Re the naming, otherwise name after the minister who christened his son. This sort of naming only happened in the UK when a child had been orphaned or there was unknown parentage.
Is there anyway we can search the early shipping lines to Canada during the 1700s? because there we may get some clues.
I recall my Auntie Lorna (Cameron) saying something about Camerons at Beauly in the area. However I see online that they are aligning themselves very much with the Lochiel Camerons, and the first names dont correlate. I was not tuning in to my father's and Lorna's conversation but did sense they were searching for family connections at the time. That was way back in the early 70s. I honestly only have snippets of information in way of voices and commentary. I did not dream we had lost our roots in this way in Scotland and it was only since 2007 that I have become aware of the Scottish diasporas as such.
All I got from my Uncle George Cameron when I kept asking my question "what did our Camerons do in Scotland?" was the simple answer "they were just crofters". Nothing more. Just this same answer over the years, which made me feel rather bleak. So I am not really up to all the great family stories going around. I tend to think they were just very poor people trying to survive as best they could, marrying in to families who might be able to help them.
I was heartened to find out that they perhaps grew barley, made whisky, that they worked as masons, salmon fisherman,
one branch was engineering in a canning factory and later successful business in the US plus lots of inventions and patents. Our branch of the family in Australia did not do quite as well, but my grandfather became am elected politician for 10 years, a second cousin went back to the UK as Queens Pathologist, becoming knighted for his work.
My father was a war hero in WW2 and a successful sheep farm, very much involved in politics, Farmers Union and Wool Board. So the family achievements in Australia were more positioning type of stuff rather than becoming wealthy and successful business people.
It is kind of sad that we cannot find our roots, and there are all sorts of stories flying around the place. However I guess due to the times back then there are lots of Scots and Irish lacking the roots this way.
I guess the family members just did not want to disturb the rest of the family with their research and delving, and that is probably why I never knew. I had become very disconnected from my family in the meantime way through to 2007-8, so I kind of lived it out anyway. I believe this happens when there are too many secrets in families, communities and nations even...things get lost along the way. Am way in favour of the likes of Wikileaks being quite beneficial to us all. There must be lots of people out there who have fallen through the cracks this way, like sucked in to the subterfuge of too much stuff in those closets and denials of reality for so long.
Genealogy is about opening those doors and I love it for just this.
cheers,
Heather
More Replies:
-
Re: Cameron or Dow? Banffshire, Scotland
Heather Cameron 4/07/13