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Ref: Donald McLellan or McLennan of Inverness

Started by Bruce McLellan, January 26, 2004, 08:57:01 PM

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Bruce McLellan

Hello, I am trying to find any information on a Donald MacLellan of Morar, Inverness. The information I have is that he and his wife, Mary, sailed on the Dove in 1801 to Pictou, Nova Scotia, along with their children...Marin age 7, Mart age 5, Patrick age 3, and Alex age 2. I am interested in knowing what his wife's maiden name may have been, and anything further about this family. Ancesters going backward and forward. Also, on board the same ship was a Finlay McLellan of Glenelg,Inverness. I am also interested in this person, as well, and perhaps, whether he might have been related to Donald, as the two towns appear to be less than 20 miles apart. I am interested in Donald because the timeline seems to fit the possibility that he might be my g-g-grandfather. - 0 -

Someone who has been to your town in search of her ancestors brought to my attention your website and noticeboard and said it was the closest one for the area I am looking at and that there are many McLellans that live in the area. I am looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack these past few years as I, too, have found that no one in my family that is still living, has any information concerning our ancestors and what little information I do have comes from a letter that was written by my grandfather back in 1947. The only thing he remembered was that his grandfather, Donald McLellan, came from Inverness and traveled to Canada, and eventually, to what would become Maine in the US. He had a son, born in Maine, who's name was James. James married Jane Findlay, who's father, Douglas, came from Aberdeen. James and Jane had four sons, one of which was my grandfather, John. (other sons, James, George and David) Grandfather John was born in Ft Fairfield, Maine on May 9th, 1853. John says we had many relatives in Canada, and a cousin to his father(James), was Roderick (Big Rory, the hammer thrower)McLennan. Grandfather went to sea at age 11 as a cabin boy and would later work his way up to captain and "master" of clipper ships and/or "downeasters" and traveled the seven seas and "round the horn" regularly. Adding to the mystery, is the fact that I have his sea chest and carved into the side of it is the name John McLennan! There were always stories swirling around that fact and that there might be connected some dark secret about a name change. When grandpa was feeling particularly feisty, his wife would always threaten to reveal some secrets about him, and that always seemed to calm him down, and no one ever did find out what those secrets might have been. I can only imagine, since he was on the high seas from age 11 in 1864 until he gave up the sea in 1898, tried his luck at the yukon gold rush, before coming to Cleveland, Ohio, and began his second career of piloting ore ships in the Great Lakes between Duluth, Minnesota to the steel mills of Cleveland. He was nearly 50 when he married and my dad was born...and my dad was nearly 50 when I was born, so thats how I have a grandfather who was a clipper ship captain. My older sister still maintains that she recalls grandfather telling her that the family name is on the sea chest. So in addition to searching Donald McLellans, I am also searching Donald McLennans. The biggg problem is that there were at least ten Donald McLellans (that I know of, and probably many more) that made their way over here during the migration period...and probably as many Donald McLennans (I know of four) who made the same journey. So the only clue that I know of would be the link with Big Rory McLennan. He was the son of Roderick McLennan (son of Farqhur,of Kintail...and Hannah MacDonald, daughter of one of the sons of Angus(Bhain)Ban MacDonald of Knoydart. So, there you have it lads. That's what I'm up against. I surely would like to be successful before my time is up, as they say. The "needle" I am looking for is for anyone who may have gone before me and done this connecting the dots process. Or perhaps, knows of any linkage between their McLellans/McLennans and the Farqhur McLennan family or the Angus Bhain MacDonald family...that involved a Donald making the trip to either Nova Scotia or Ontario, Canada and into the Maine territory of the US. If you can get me to Maine with Donald, I can give you some wonderful and adventurous stories about some of your decendents on this side of the pond, at least the ones from my particular branch. I look forward to hearing from you, any and all. And I will respond to each. To those that see this posting and know of any McLellans and or McLennans who live in the area, please make them aware of this posting.
Thanking you all, in advance.
Sincerely, Bruce Cameron McLellan