Genealogy Chat

I just discovered that my gt gt gt grandmother, Christiana Marcarla was born in Lewis Island Scotland abt 1785. This is my first link to Scotland. I've tried googling but there doesn't seem to be a lot of info. Does anyone have any ideas?? Thanks Update.......does anyone have any ideas of a surname I can search for.......I have tried heaps on Family Search with no luck. Thanks

Hi Karen, my granny is from Lewis and I've spent many very happy summers there. Lewis is the most northerly of the Outer Hebrides - aka 'The Long Island' though made up of lots of islands. Running from north to south the main ones are Lewis, Harris, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist. Lewis and Harris are actually one land-mass though are very different geographically. Web-sites...try googling 'Bill Lawson Co Leis Thu' - he runs an excellent genealogical service - I've just received material from him back to the 1700's. Macarla sounds strange to my ears - is this a typo? Which village did they come from? It is most unlikely - but my granny's uncle) emigrated to Australia. I love Lewis and would chat about it for hours...so I'll stop here. Please get back in touch with whatever you know and I'll see if I can help any more. Regards, William

Hi Karen There is a visitor centre on Lewis called Seallam. In it there is a genealogy research centre called (Co) Leis Thu?( translates from Gaelic as Who do you belong to?) ran by Bill and Chris Lawson. He has researched almost every household in the Outer Hebrides in the last 200 years. The web site for it is http://www.seallam.*com/coleisthu.htm He may be able to help you. There are quite a few links on there to other web sites too. Another site that could be useful to look at is http://www.rootshebrides.*com remember to remove the * from the addresses. Another thing would be to look at Cyndis list for passenger ships, you might find your ancestor on there leaving Lewis for Australia. Hope you might find something useful there. Christine

Oo SNAP William! LOL BTW I love Lewis too...even called my son after the Island! Christine

You could perhaps try www*scotsorigins*com which allows you to search OPR's by county in Scotland for births/marriages. It shows the LDS IGI which is often transcribed OPR's or otherwise info submitted by LDS members so you need to check.

Thanks everyone. I'd say Marcarla is a transcription for something like MacKallah, McCalla etc.......do they sound more local?? I have her marriage cert for 1810 in Gravesend Kent. She signed with an 'X' so I guess they wrote down what she said. She didn't come to Australia..her son Abraham did. I wonder why she moved from Lewis Island to Gravesend Kent?? I'll check out those sites. Don't they speak English there????? Thanks

Hi Karen, another website worth looking at is www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/ it has links to local council websites with valuable info on them. Shaun

There is no county named Lewis Island, or Hebrides. Do I try ROSS AND CROMARTY ? Does anyone have some suggestions for a Scottish version of Marcarla?? I am running out of ideas Thanks

Thanks Shaun...I'll give it a go

Crickey !! I just saw where it is on a map......it must be FREEZING up there!!! It's also a long way from Gravesend !

Could it be something like Mc Cullough? Heather

What about searching Macnamara???

Hi again Karen, Ross and Cromarty is the county to go for. She almost certainly moved to the south of England for work. As for the language, Gaelic is still spoken in the north-west of Scotland. Scots Gaelic (pronounced to rhyme with gar-lick but without the 'r') is a close linguistic cousin with Irish Gaelic (pronounced gay-lick but also known as just Irish) and, I think, Manx (which is from the Isle of Man). Welsh, Cornish and Breton are less closely related. There are not many Gaelic speakers these days but it is seeing something of a re-surgence. There are Gaelic medium schools - my brother teaches Gaelic in a (non Gaelic medium) school in the north-west...just as other schools would teach French or German. There are no people who speak just Gaelic - the last lady died about 10/20 years ago, I think. Some children are brought up just to speak gaelic though they will obviously pick English up too. Once again I've gone off on a ramble. May add some more later if it's at all interesting to anyone??! Regards, William

Karen, I got a Scots friend to have a go at the name Marcarla and she came up with Mc Kellar. Have you tried this ? Elaine x.

HI KAREN MY RELLIES COME FROM SCOTLAND AND THEIR NAME IS McARA. BY THE WAY I'M ALSO IN OZ - NEWCASTLE! REGARDS EILEEN

Hi Karen, Could be the spelling is correct but not scottish. My family are Vass not a scottish name but going back just as far, we know it's from the Vikings. Mel in Oz.

thanks everyone I will give those names a try. Wow, McKellar is popular in Scotland.......tried Family search & got up to about 3000 of them all from Argyll, before I gave up.

William, I love learning about these places.......you can tell me as much as you like! I am UK ignorant.

Eileen......... are we related !?!?!? LOL I am also from Newcastle !! Well, Lake Macquarie which is close enough. Small world

Melissa, don't make this any harder for me !!! LOL I originally thought it sounded Spanish......but it's not. Vikings !! OMG