Smiths from Ardnamurchan emigrated on the George Fyfe 1839

[AWhiteford]

Hi all - I'm trying to break down a brick wall. I have copies of arrival documents from 1840 for John and Mary Smith, Lachlan (18), Roderick (16), Hugh (14), George (12), Mary (10 - my g grandmother) and Margaret (9). John was 44 and Mary 40. They emigrated to Sydney. The family was Catholic, Lachlan could read and write. The onshore documents show the family was from Ardnamuchan, Invernessshire. John was a farmer as was his father. Lachlan is listed as a stockman. They left Tobermory on the George Fyfe in 1839 arriving Jan 1840, pre the 1841 Census unfortunately for me. I have had no luck finding John and Mary's death details here. That's the joy and wonder of Smiths. Lachlan, Roderick and Hugh also disappeared into the mists once they arrived here.

I've searched Scotlands People and wandered through the LDS CDs for Scotland without any luck in finding them. John's parents were John and Mary (McDonald). Mary's were Hugh and Catherine possibly McEachern. This surname was suggested by a lister to another board but I've had no success following up on it. John and Mary are my gg grandparents. I am planning to travel to Scotland and Ireland in 2008 primarily for family history purposes and would love to be able to walk where my families lived.

Any help in finding more about this family would be greatly appreciated. Are there other sources I should be considering? What sort of records would exist for Catholics in Ardnamurchan in the period from say 1800 to 1840? What records exist, if any, for farmers/crofters/tennant farmers, in Scotland during the late 1700s and 1800s? Lachlan could read and write - are there any records of schools during the period 1815-1840 in Ardnamurchan? Are there OPRs for Ardnamurchan farming communities for this period.

Thanks all for any assistance/suggestions for further research.

PS Even if I don't find out more about them I will certainly be visiting Ardnamurchan - it looks like a very lovely place. I've also been lucky in that other family left post the 1851 Census from Campbeltown (Whiteford) and from Ayrshire (Wyllie) and I have streets to walk where they lived.

Anne

[AndrewP]

Hi Anne,

A description of Ardnamurchan parish can be found in the Statistical Accounts of Scotland at the following website.

http://edina.ac.uk/stat-acc-scot/

Click on the link to browse scanned pages and select Argyllshire, then Ardnamurchan. The two old reports are there for you to browse.

The parish was large and two quoad sacra parishes are divided from the main parish. The main part of the pArish is describes as Western Ardnamurchan, with the QS parishes of Sunart and Acharacle attached. The parish split across the county boundary between Argyll and Inverness-shire. In the OPRs and Statistical Accounts, Ardnamurchan was indexed under Argyll. The furthest apart churches within the parish were most of 60 miles apart. That was most likely road miles rather than straight line miles. The parish coastline is dominated by sea lochs and inland it is quite mountainous, so the road routes linking the parts of the parish is quite circuitous.

The Inverness-shire part was the northern part of this large parish (mostly South Morar) was nearest to Acharacle, but still 20 miles or more from that church. That could be a reason for births from that part of the parish being less likely to appear in the OPRs. Also, there was a significant portion of the inhabitants of the parish belonging to the Roman Catholic church. Their events were also less likely to be inscribed in the OPRs, which were held and maintained by the (Established) Church of Scotland.

For Ardnamurchan, the following OPRs have survived:

505. ARDNAMURCHAN (Including Strontian (Sunart) and Acharacle)

505/1 Western Ardnamurchan B 1777-1819 M 1776-1819 D -
and Strontian B 1804-19 M 1804-19 D -

505/2 Strontian B 1820-54 M 1820-54 D -

505/3 Western Ardnamurchan B 1819-54 M 1816-54 D -

505.1/1 Acharacle B 1829-54 M 1831-54 D -

One RC church from Ardnamuchan whose records exist in the National Archives of Scotland is Our Lady of the Angels Roman Catholic Church, Moidart. The records are indexed as RH21/48 and consist of:

baptisms 1829-1861
marriages 1830-1908
deaths 1838-1855

These records have been filmed by the LDS and you should be able to hire (for a small fee) the film into an LDS Family History Centre in your area. There may be other RC churches within Ardnamurchan whose records remain within the church or the diocese.

All the best,

AndrewP

[SarahND]

Hello Anne,
Welcome to Talking Scot!
Andrew has given you some very useful information. With luck, you can find the birth of some of the younger children in the RC film he refers to. Ideally, it would be nice to find some of John and Mary's siblings who stayed in Scotland and take advantage of the wealth of information in census and Statutory records... Good luck!
All the best,
Sarah

[AWhiteford]

I'm particularly interested in the information about the Lady of the Angels records. I live in Australia but will be in Scotland next year. I was planning to spend days in archives etc and will definitely follow up on that reference.

Once again thanks all and if there's anywhere else it might be worth researching I'd appreciate any advice.

Anne