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Hi Bernard:
Just had some more information to share with you. I did a little double-checking and it's interesting that even Mary Jane's son, John Francis Scahill, wasn't good with the Mc's & Mac's...in 1937 he put on his Soc. Sec. app that his mother was "Mary McDonald" and I noted in my records that even in the church baptismal records, Mary Jane is mostly referred to as Mary McDonald. Also, in the 1870 Michigan census, I thought it was interesting that census taker refers to that specific family as the "McDonal" family in two different places in the census even though he refers to non-related families as McDonald. It makes me wonder why he would pick out a different spelling only for this family in Port Austin, MI. I wonder if he knew something about the actual background of this family. That, coupled with the places in the church records where Mary Jane is called "Mcdonnell" makes me wonder if, in fact, originally this was a family of "MacDonell" ...which is still part of the original family (clan) "MacDonald"...it's just that one branch of the clan changed the spelling to MacDonell. And, I believe, it's that group, the MacDonells, that were moved by the English entirely out of Scotland and transported to Canada (Glengarry County, Ontario??) in the 1700s because they were so troublesome to the English in Scotland. Incidentally, I have read a little on the subject and it is frequently stated that all McDonald/MacDonalds are ultimately derived historically from the same people in Scotland .... including the Irish McDonalds. Anyway, regarding that Macdonell name, I know it's flimsy evidence, but it seems like when there are so many McDonald/MacDonalds (it's the largest of the clans)what led the census taker in 1870 and the record keeper in the London church in 1893 to decide to call the family a form of the name Macdonell instead of the common Mc or MacDonald. It seems like it would have been just natural to use MacDonald unless someone was present who knew that this family really used a variant spelling.
Well I'll stop going on about it but I sure am curious about it.
Also, do you know where Mary Jane's father and mother died or were buried? Did you ever hear names of her brothers and sisters -- in other words, I guess they would be your grandfather's uncles and aunts. Or is their something in writing somewhere other than a census that might give first names of other MacDonalds? Let me know.
Thanks.
Pat Burns
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