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Received the following 2 e mail in December 2010, which I have been mulling them
over ever since. And came up with the following observations
I see that you have written a few articles on the History of the MacDonalds of Loup and
Clan Ian Ruadh. I was wondering if if you had ever thought about combining these
articles into one complete package? If all of your writings on the subject were combined
would it give the reader a clear idea of what exactly it means to be a MacDonald of
Loup as well as a member of Clan Ian Ruadh, not just in regard to the family line but
also the geographical, political,and historical context? As well, do you have any sort of
bibliographical on Ian Ruadh or any other persons from the Line?
Hope you have a great Christmas.
Peter MacDonald
Back in this time period prior to the 1850's I would say, there were traditions that
some family members were the keepers of family history, most of
which was verbal. Yes, there was no doubt that there was written stuff around,
but not to many of the ordinary folk, many of whom did not read or write would
have such stuff. Fr John comes across a being a somewhat very particular
person for detail in this regard. As a priest he married many MacDonalds and
others who were related either as 1st, 2nd or 3rd cousins, but mostly in the 3rd &
4th degree of consanguinity, relationship wise. Since a special dispensation was
required for these marriages of be accomplished, I am assuming that, that in part
lead to his delving into the genealogy of the people more deeply.
Fr John's Diary goes from 1819 - 1866 before there were very many official
government BMD in existence in that part of Ontario where St Raphael's was
located.
If the reader choses not to give any credence or validity to these observation,
assumptions, perspectives then the following will make little sense. This is above
all the glitches and questions that come up.
I got a copy of this Fr John's Diary in the mid late 1970's which was
about 100 years after his death. One of the serious glitches as the
recording were transcribed by who ever over the years was how the
original gaelic names were written & turned into rubbish, making
some entries impossible to properly decipher.
I know how easy it is to get mixed up on the common names and like
the John MacDonald "King" & his wife Catherine MacDonell the
parents of Henrietta MacDonell 1772-1848 wife of Peter MacDonell son
of Angus of Allan [the Lundie line] & John & Catherine MacDonald the
parents of Nancy ca 1788 - 1820 the mother of the 4 Sandfield
brothers, is just one of the many sample of this. Both of these sets
of John's & Catherines lived in the same time period Ca 1800,
apparently lived not to far from each other, probably knew each
other. Here you have to prove, sort out what you desire to eliminate so you
can confirm the accuracy of what puzzle you are actually desiring to solve
in a particular family.
Any of the Loup MacDonald charts, similar to the one I have which my
father found at Neilly Austin R MacDonald sale in mid 1972 from the
5th concession of Lancaster and which we/I have had ever since. I
have no idea who is responsible for the making of the Loup chart or
the time period it was made. My guess was prior to 1950. Also from
what Peter has indicated it was in existence in the early 1940's. I
suspect that possible Mgrs Ewen J MacDonald of Alexandria, parish
priest had a hand in its construction, but this is only an assumption.
The "Clan Ian Ruadh"I am assuming that is the Ian Ruadh the son of
Neal on the Loup chart. Neal who lived ca 1500 - Ca 1576. If this
assumption is accurate, then as such, this is a common aspect in
families, that as part of a family line a name designated was developed as
is now know for the ardnabi sept, Scotus, Ian Ruadh Aberchalder and so
on.
From all that I am presently aware off, this "Clan Ian Ruadh" is part of the
MacDONALDS OF LOUP. Here you Peter, I, Alex W Fraser, the both Fr John
MacDonalds and 1000's of other people [MacDonalds] belong in one way or another to
this line. If there is a different "Clan Ian Ruadh" then the questions wasn't specific
enough to provide a different answer. Fr John MacDonald 1792-1879 of Fr
John's diary came from a family of 14 children born over a period from
1778 to 1806.
This group of MacDonalds has also be designated as the Clan Ranald, but again,
from what i am aware of, the Clan Ranald Macdonald started 3 or more generations
after the LOUP MACDONALDS. Since every Male of the Loup MacDonald line that got
married, whose wife was a Macdonald, it can not be much of a surprise that some of
these people would & can claim to be descendent of the Clan Ranald, the Lundie,
Ardnabi, etc.
Peter mentioned that I did some articles on the Loup MacDonald, which I have forgotten
all about, so I better go revisit them. This was probably done almost 30 years ago.
Over the past 40 years in doing my own research and at least 95% of it has been based
on Fr John's Diary and the St Raphael's BMD with the intention of only dealing with the
previous 200 years, from the early-mid 1700's to the present. Like everything else,
there is always questions that grab you for solving the puzzle that exist before this late
1700's time period. Most of the marriages of cousins will always take you back into that
time period.
Here are some entries from My original copy of Fr John's Diary before I
made any additions and are from 3 difference lines 2 of which overlap from
the MacDonald of Loup Chart. Here I have just gleaned the longer lines
from Fr John's Diary, rather than linking various lines together to link into
these 3 lines from the Loup Chart to Neal [11].
Any place I have a CA is simply a reference year point which is not meant
to be accurate in any sense of the word. It is simply a reference point that
can be adjusted when additional information becomes available. This CA is
always subject to change.
In the above entry [1] the year is 1847 which has a list of 12 generations
starting with Isabel at age 16. Thus I estimate the time of Neal generation
12 ca 1500 give or take 25. The the time period between Neal & Isabel is
about 347 years. Thus a generation comes out at 28.91 years.
In this entry [2] the year is 1855 which has a list of 11 generations starting
with Kenneth at age 33. I estimate the time of Neal generation 11 ca 1500
give or take 25. The the time period between Neal & Kenneth is about 355
years. Thus a generation comes out at 29.58 years.
In this entry [3] the year is 1856 which lists 13 generations starting with
Marjory MD at age 35.5. The tentative time period of Donald a Isla is 1204
-1249. Say from 1230 to 1856 is 626 years. If the estimate of the time
when Neal lived is ca 1500 and Donald a Isla was living ca 1230, then
there is a 270 year gap between generation [11] Neal and generation [12]
Alex son of [13]Donald a Isla. That would indicate that there is missing
about up to 8 generations. This would also tentatively indicate that the
estimated time period I have for Neal is out anywhere from 50 to 100 years.
The Loup chart has 5 generations between [11]Neal the father of Ian
Ruadh and Alistair Mor Laird of loup son of Donald a Isla. Eight generations
in total. The period between Neal & Alex son of Donald a Isla has to have
5 or more generations in it regardless of the correct names or the positions
of those names.
This Neal[11] from the above is 15 generations back from, me, Alex W
Fraser and based on on my research, I have no reason at all to believe any
of the names in this line to be inaccurate or out of place.
6] Here is another entry from St Raphael's for Duncan MacDonald the brother of
Fr John
DUNCAN MACDONALD [The Rogue]
On November 23rd 1865, the undersigned priest buried in the burial ground of
St. Raphaels the body of Duncan MacDonald, husband of Jannet MacDonell of St.
Raphaels and son of John MacDonald and of Nancy MacGillis. He departed at
Williamstown the 21st of November at the age of 68 years 5 months and 20 days,
being born the 1st of June 1797. He was a brother of the Reverend Aeneas born
September 29th 1779 - departed September 13th 1859, and of mine John born in June
1782, of Mary born May 12th 1784, of Donald born November 19th 1786, of
Catherine born April 19th 1790 died January 13th 1863, of Lachlin born May 12th
1792, of Margaret born March 24th 1795, himself said Duncan born June 1st 1797
died 21st November 1865, the brother of Nancy born July 28th 1799, of Roderick born
July 6th 1802, of Ewan [Eugene] born April 23rd 1805 died June 21st 1834; son of John
Roy born February 1751 - died______ 1825, son of Donald born 1718 died April 24th
1795, of Catherine MacGillis born about 1724 - died February 1st 1803, about. The
said Duncan was also a son of Nancy MacGillis born July 1st 1759 died January 15th
1847 at St. Andrews Ontario, daughter od Donald MacGillis born in 1731 died Friday
19th or 20th March 1801 and of Mary MacDonald born _______ departed September
25th 1770.
So as asserted as probably correct by the Reverend John MacDonald, the brother of
deceased.
I will have to study Fr John's diary some more to see if I can find the names
in any generation before Neal [11] In these observations I have limited
myself to the MacDonald of Loup line. Fr. John had other family lines of
similar length, McGillis, McRae, Kennedy, McDougal.
I also did a family history report from Neal the father of Ian Ruadh and it
is over 500 pages
I also did a family history report from Somerled and it is just under 750
pages
So far from what I have gleaned from Fr John's Diary & the St Raphael's
RC BMD is that the listing of the generations go back 10 to 12 generations
to Ian Ruahd son of Neil ca 1500 or earlier. The spread of names from
Neil to Donald of the Isles, [ namely Angus Buidhe of Ewan of Chanes of
Hector Og [An Ardarrn Loim] of Hector Ard of Alastair Mor Laird of
Loup ] son of Donald of the Isles. These 6 generations that you state that
are in contention came from charts & other sources that I am not aware of.
As far as I can tell the Clan Ian Ruadh is part of what I call the MacDonalds
of Loup.
The above may or may not answer your question but I believe it is very fair
to say that Fr John knew the people of his parish of St Raphaels and with
them knew their family genealogy back10 to 12 generations and maybe
more, even if there seems to be little evidence of it from these above 2
sources, Namely St Raphael's RC BMD & Fr John's Diary of deaths which
definitely existed prior to the publication of the Clan Donald 3 volume
history between 1896 & 1904.