Descendants of Malcolm Kerr of Strond, Harris

Here are the known descendants down to my grandfather's generation.
If Malcolm & Effie had any other children, especially daughters, then unfortunately they have slipped my grasp!

Descendants of Duncan Macdonald 1750-1830

Duncan Macdonald was a Kelp Maker in Orinsay.
His son Alexander's family were Cleared from there in 1843 and settled in Steinish.
Here I show the families of their children down to my grandfather's generation.
It is worth noting that, had the Clearance not occured, then none of the people in the final two columns would have been born! The shading of Annie Kerr and William Maciver indicates that they were cousins.

Ancestors of John Kerr 1875-1936

Here is a second example of a PDF chart generated by PCAF and converted into a JPEG.
This one is a fan chart of my grandfather's ancestors back to his great, great grandparents.
Although this is as far back as I am ever likely to be able to discover, I am pretty chuffed to have found the complete set of 16 people and the 12 different family names that are represented:

Alphabetical List of Family Names:
CAMPBELL
KERR
MACDONALD
MACKENZIE
MACLEAN
MACLENNAN
MACLEOD
MACSWEEN
MARTIN
MONTGOMERY
MURRAY
SHAW

Note: The free converter, 'office Convert Pdf to Jpg' was downloaded from CNET which is my first port of call for such downloads. There is an upgrade with more 'bells & whistles' available but if nothing else this free version allows me to demonstrate the charting capabilities of the Personal Ancestral File Companion software.

Descendants of Angus Kerr

This is an experiment in taking a PDF document generated by PAFC (Personal Ancestral File Companion) and converting it into JPEG format for import into a blog.
This one shows the descendants of my '3rd great granduncle' who lived along the Sound of Harris from An-t-Ob to Strond & Rodel.
If anyone reading this happens to be related to anyone shown here, please let me know!

Fred, Peter & Edvard

I was doing a little more background research into Fred (FWL) Thomas and came upon this entry in the online Shetlopedia from where I followed the link to Peter Andreas Munch . In wanting to learn more about PA Munch and discover what I can about the relationship between the two men with their shared interest in placename origins, I took a look at this page and what immediately took my eye was the fact that this Munch was an uncle of the Expressionist pioneer Edvard Munch .

To find this link between a marine surveyor who I have recently come to admire and an artist who I have long found fascinating is a pleasant and most unexpected surprise!
Sadly, however, Peter Andreas Munch died on the 25th May 1863 and his nephew wasn't born until the 12th December of the same year.
His uncle should have been celebrating his own 53rd birthday just three days later...

'Free Church open of Black Pt. clears the Oban Rocks'

An odd title for a piece about a nautical chart, perhaps, but to me it has a certain poetry redolent of several facets of the Western Isles. The chart is that of East Loch Tarbert East Loch Tarbert , surveyed by Lieut. FWL Thomas, assisted by WT Clifton, 2^nd Master, in 1857.

The title is a phrase found giving a sighting for safe passage into Tarbert avoiding the Oban Rocks and using the sight of the Free Church tower in Tarbert, once it appears from behind 'Rudha Dubh', as a sign that the way is free from obstruction. The church and Manse that appear on the chart, published in 1863, appear to have only been built the previous year but how significant it is that the erection of Tarbert's Free Church should be used to help enable mariners to steer a safe passage into the harbour! We should also note that, although the sailing direction uses the English 'Black Pt.' in its instruction, the chart itself adds the Gaelic name in parenthesis.

Whilst we are in the vicinity of Tarbert, with its School and Inn marked alongside the ecclesiastical structures already mentioned, it is interesting to see how the chart 'bleeds' over its rectangular boarder to lead us to the shore of West Loch Tarbert just a few hundred yards away. If only that connection had once been made available to vessels who knows what riches might have been gained for the people of Harris!

Moving South from Tarbert, we follow the coast via Craobhag and Yellow Rock (Sgeir Bhuidhe), past Mhurchaidh Rock to Coal Island (E. a. Ghuail). Stop at this island and look left towards the nearby Trig point (a small triangle with a dot inside it) on the mainland. As your gaze passes from sea to land you notice a small shaded rectangle just a few feet from the shore and not many more above the surface of the waves. A house, roofed, occupied. It is the home of John the Tailor and where his son Malcolm, my great, great grandfather was born.

The house of this landless Cottar lies close to the man-made southern boundary of Croft 5, Direcleit, and that arrow-true pointer takes us to Loch Direcleit and, just beyond, Baile Dhiracleit or the Township (Carmichael prefers 'Townland') of Direcleit. Here are the cluster of six or seven houses that sit at the head of head of the bay but there are at least nine others shown scattered around the somewhat obese headland that ends at Dhiracleit Point.

This survey, made a century-and-a-half in the past, gives us the first accurate plan of the land since Bald's map that dates back yet another half-century. It is, as I trust you will allow me, of particular significance to me for obvious reasons but it is also worth exploring as a thing of beauty in itself. One example, tucked at the bottom left-hand corner, will serve as an example. Here, in a position where it doesn't intrude upon the main chart, is a drawing of the land as seen from a point at sea. It includes two references to peaks on the land and uses a wonderfully gentle and easily overlooked means of identifying those landmarks for above the summit of each are drawn some birds. The group of three above Roneval are not merely there for decoration but also in order for the summit to be identified in the writing below. It is a lovely touch, adding to our understanding of the scene without detracting from the artistry of the image it adorns. Magical!

Alexander Carmichael in Uist

Alexander Carmichael (1932-1912) spent two periods of his life living in the Western Isles and, as luck would have it, we catch sight of him there during the night of two consecutive censuses:

1871 The Manse of Trumisgarry, North Uist

Alexander A Carmichael, 38, Officer of Inland Revenue (Excise Branch), b. Lismore, Argyle

Mary F U M Carmichael, 29, Wife, b. Par. of Tongue, Sutherlandshire

Elizabeth C Carmichael, 7 months, b. Par. Of Lismore, Argyle

Catherine Carmichael, 17, Niece, Visitor, b. Par. Lismore, Argyle

Catherine Macaulay, 22, General domestic Servant, b. North Uist

Margaret Macinnes, 18, Nurse, b. North Uist

(Alexander Carmichael, 3, Visitor, Newton Farm House, North Uist, b. Lismore, Argyle)

1881 Scolpaig Farm House, North Uist

Alexander Carmichael, 49, Officer Inland Revenue, b. Lismore, Argyleshire

Mary F Carmichael, 39, Wife, b. Logie, Inverness-shire

Alexander M Carmichael, 12, Son, b. Lismore, Argyleshire

Elizabeth C Carmichael, 10, Daughter, b. Lismore, Argyleshire

Eon K Carmichael, 9, Son, b. South Uist

John M Carmichael, 6, Son, b. South Uist

John Macdonald, 26, Farm Grieve, b. North Uist

Alexander McQuinn, 20, Ploughman, b. North Uist

Alexander MacDonald, 25, Shepherd, b. North Uist

Roderick Macrury, 16, Cattle Herd, b. North Uist

Mary Maclean, 36, Domestic Servant, b. North Uist

Janet Macdougall, 27, Dairymaid, b. North Uist

It is known that the Carmichael's lived at Creagorry on South Uist and I presume that the two youngest boys were both born there. It is also known that they spent their second stay in Uist, beginning in 1880, in Scolpaig but I think that the record of them living in the The Manse at Trumisgarry in 1871 (and us seeing the eldest son Alexander staying 3 miles away at Newton perhaps as a treat, perhaps due to the recent arrival of his baby sister?) is 'new' information.

Whatever the circumstances, I thought I'd add this little piece on a man who did magnificent work in recording Gaelic culture and whose path crossed, productively, those of Captain FWL Thomas and Admiral Otter. Oh, and let us not forget their wives for, to differing degrees and in various ways, these three ladies also appear to have played significant roles in this work in their own right.

Notes:

http://www.carmichaelwatson.lib.ed.ac.uk/biographies.php?lang=eng

http://carmichaelwatson.blogspot.com/

Letters from Alexander Carmichael to Captain F.W.L. Thomas

There is a treasure-trove of correspondence between these two men to be read here:
http://www.archives.lib.ed.ac.uk/text/GB-237-Coll-97/GB-237-Coll-97-CW362_GB-237-Coll-97-CW472.pdf

It is significant that reference is made to three wives (obviously those of Carmichael and Thomas, plus Mrs Otter whose husband Admiral Otter was Fred Thomas's superior), ably amplifying the impression I have of these men immersing themselves in the islands in ways way beyond those called-for merely by their duties.
I'd venture to say that we have seldom (if ever) attained such a degree of involvement in investigations in the succeeding 150 years!

One of my favourite passages is this from Carmichael:

I believe the ministry in Skye have been torturing the place-names there, which are three fourths if not seven eights Norse into all sorts of forced Gaelic names. Could the Government not be got to employ a competent Gaelic scholar to go carefully over the land and writing down each name as it is spoken on the spot? I would have no forcing either for Gaelic or Norse meaning best – just the sound given to the name [by] the people in the place. This would be I think a great gain. At present you have no guarantee that the name on the Ordnance map is the name used by the people of the place. Take my own native island of Lismore for example, for whose map I am just indebted to the kindness of Capt. MacPherson. Every name in the Island is quite familiar to me and on the map I can hardly recognise one of them – I can only wonder indeed how they managed to distort them out of their form. Very few names are given however – not more than ten per Cent I should think.

It could be slipped, seamlessly, between the leaves of the excellent Togail Tir...

Note: A biography of Alexander Carmichael can be read here: http://www.carmichaelwatson.lib.ed.ac.uk/biographies.php?lang=eng

Dendrochronology

Just a brief musing on whether the technique of dendrochronology ('tree-ring dating') could be applied to learn about the origin of timbers found in various structures on the Western Isles?

I have seen references to Viking 'flat-packs' of roof timers and boats being exported (a precursor, perhaps, of IKEA!) , Baltic timber found in Stirling Castle, etc but am not aware of any studies relating specifically to the isles.

If anyone has any information on any work that has been done then I would love to learn of it!

Film?

I am thinking about what a great film could be made taking the maritime charting of the Western Isles in the middle of the 19thC as the core around which it would be based. As well as the potential for recreating life aboard survey vessels of that time in spectacular scenery, it would also bring us ashore (they surveyed for up to 3 miles inland!) where we would witness the changes taking place, particularly those on Harris under the 6^th Earl's ownership, and Captain Thomas's work on the archaeology etc of Lewis.

He was a pioneer of photography, was accompanied by his wife on the surveys and she played an important (vital, perhaps?) role in the development of textile industries on Harris. They even had a wooden house erected on Harris such was the depth of their commitment to their roles. We also have the interesting, at times tragic, story of their private lives (not least Frances's second Baptism and subsequent marriage to her step-brother Fred) ending with the widowed Frances marrying the son of a veteran from the Battle of Trafalgar whose ship's ensign is the only remaining one from that event.

Captain Otter's part in the laying of the first Transatlantic Telegraph Cable, Fred's father's pioneering work in the Shetlands and Orkneys (apparently including the 10 year-old Fred!) could be woven into a piece centred on, say, the period from 1857-1867 and ending with the sale of the North Harris Estate to the Scott family.

Oh well, one can but dream...

Personal Ancestral File (PAF)

I've been using this robust and FREE program for several years and rather than repeating what's so good about it (and outlining its limitations) I recommend reading this: http://www.gensoftreviews.com/?p=126

It, and the companion program that allows you to produce a huge variety of charts and reports, can be downloaded from : http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Home/Welcome/welcome.asp .

The add-on can be upgraded (when I got mine it simply meant sending a £5 cheque to Birmingham, England and then swiftly receiving two CDs in the post) and is certainly worth every penny.

There are several other programs on the market (no, I haven't tried them!) but PAF is definitely worth downloading.

Scales

I recall the first time I saw familiar territory on a 1:50 000 OS map; land that I thought I knew well in its 1:63, 600 guise seemed stretched, less concentrated in its complexity, barren, almost. This artefact of enlargement, caused because the move to metric hadn't been accompanied by much revision of the data, took a while to overcome. Metrication made sense mathematically but to someone who's map-reading had been honed (OK, subjected to slight improvement!) over several spotty-faced years poring over the familiar density of the old 'one-inch' maps the newcomers were an unwelcome intrusion.

Sometime later I saw my first 1:25 000 map whilst walking in one on Britain's National Parks and I couldn't read it. It was as incomprehensible to me as a text written in a non-Latin alphabet. I can only suppose that my previous internalisation of the 'one-inch' format, which had been to such an extent that I could take-in a scene and imagine the ground lying before me, was sufficiently complete to be completely confused by the unfamiliar details, and space, on the super-scale impostor.

The relevance of all this? Well, all maps are approximations, compromises between the real World in all its dimensions and the paper plane created by cartography. All I had done was to embrace one such approximation and map it onto my mind, forsaking all others. It was a skill, but not one that was as easy to transfer as might be expected. Whilst the 1:25 000 map is a wonder of cartography (although desperately in need of revision), giving the walker hitherto unexpected detail of his surroundings anywhere in the whole of Britain, I still find the 1:50 000 easier to empathise with (my middle-age eyesight certainly no-longer finds the move from 1:63 600 such a pain) and I think the reason for that is context.

I was investigating fancy GPS gear with downloadable maps and realised that one would still need a paper map (and a compass, of course!) in order to make sense of the few square inches of illuminated LEDs. The 'bigger picture' that shows the lie of the land, that puts our place in a wider expanse, that reminds us that it is an appreciation of the whole that truly makes sense of the particular spot in which we are located, is what makes the 1:50 000 map such a treasure.

Oh, and if the option existed, I would still prefer a 'one-inch' map, with contours in feet and, preferably, at the same price as they were 40 years ago!

Notes:

A fascinating site on the development of OS maps - http://www.fieldenmaps.info/info/

An excellent source of downloadable (£) OS mapping - http://www.mapyx.com/

Dr Donald Munro Morrison d.1889

In his 'Carmina Gadelica', Alexander Carmichael writes regarding the origin of three particular poems:

Dr Morrison heard them from an old man known as 'Coinneach Saor' - Kenneth the Carpenter - and his wife, at Obbe, Harris.

These aged people were habitually practising quaint religious ceremonies and singing curious religious poems to peculiar music, evidently ancient.

In childhood Dr Morrison lived much with this couple, and in manhood recorded much of their old lore and music.

These however he noted in characters and notations of his own invention which he did not live to render intelligible to others. This is extremely regrettable, as Dr Morrison's wonderfully wide, accurate, and scientific attainments, deep knowledge of Gaelic, of music, and of acoustics, were only surpassed by his native modesty of mind and tender benevolence of heart. He was a distinguished medallist in several subjects at the University of Edinburgh...  Dr Morrison was descended from the famous hereditary brehons of the Isles.

I am hoping to learn more about Dr Morrison and of the couple who he spent time with on Harris but, alas, have not been able to identify any of them in the censuses or elsewhere.

If anyone has any information regarding the Dr, or his hosts, please do contact me - the phrase 'and in manhood recorded much of their lore and music' suggests a rich seam worthy of exploration!

Update: "Dr. Donald Munro Morrison, Son of Iain Gobha, Harris died in No 22 Ward R. Infirmary Edinburgh on Monday the 2d Dec 1889"

http://www.carmichaelwatson.lib.ed.ac.uk/cwatson/en/fulltexttranscription/3528/0/6/6/pers_cw_id:p4221/Dr.%20Donald%20Munro%20Morrison/ALL