MacLachlans

McLachlans! Who do you think they are?

You might spell your name thus, the usual way, or MacLachlan which makes you no different. A story is that one of the Dukes of Argyll instructed those responsible for his many estates to shorten Mac to M’ which has been taken to signify Mc. Mc Lauchlan is the spelling rationalised by ministers of the Established Church in Perthshire from the many variations used in parishes there until about two hundred years ago. The same spelling was used in Ayrshire and some of the counties on its borders and is assumed to point to an Irish connection because that part of the west coast is where many settlers from Ireland made their landfall when the letter “c” replaced the “g” which are the equivalents in the two countries, e.g Loch and Lough. That is a generalisation as the names of migrants within Scotland would have their names written the way that was common in the district. Migration between Ireland and Scotland was not all one way although the potato famines brought about mass exodus from the Emerald Isle. Until about the time of the 1745 Rebellion the populations were comparatively static and the main movements were through the salt water lochs and the short crossing to and from counties Antrim and Donegal. The human race on both sides has been classified as Gaul-gael as distinct from the Pictish people in the north and east of Scotland. The Welsh, Cornish and the French in Brittany are common in this respect. To use the common McLachlan spelling, most were in Argyll and across into Inverness around Fort William; the Clansmen followed their local leaders, kinsmen of the earlier Chiefs. The earliest known separating branch was the MacLachlans of Coruanan, near the northeast extremity of Loch Linnhe, where they became hereditary standard bearers to Cameron of Locheil. Other McLachlan“tacksmen”, holders of a “tack” or lease from the mighty landowners, and their military lieutenants in times of strife, were along the shores of Loch Linnhe in Morvern and Lismore parishes and at the eastern end of Mull. Although their superior was the Duke of Argyll, supporter of the Government, they fought on the rebel side in 1745. Considerable numbers of McLachlan farm tenants and cottars tended lived on and around these tacks. Thus, the rank and file McLachlans were most numerous in Kilmallie (Fort William), Morvern, Lismore, Appin, Ardnamurchan and Mull and farther south in the territories under the direct influence of Maclachlan of Maclachlan. These were the parishes of Strathlachlan (a small one), Kilfinan (a large one) and the rest of the Cowal peninsular between Lochs Fyne and Long. For centuries the Chiefs controlled land on the west side of Loch Linnhe around and north of the present town of Lochgilphead in Glassary and Kilmartin parishes. Every parish on the Kintyre peninsular included McLachlans and so did the island of Islay. How so many of us reached Perthshire is not known but the assumption is that they may have been attached the Breadalbane Campbells who extended their lands contiguously across the Grampians to Killin and the parishes all around. They had their farms in the parishes of Blair Athol, Dull and Moulin. An early settlement was made in the County of Stirling by the ancient MacLachlans of Auchentroig in Drymen parish and it is assumed that related to them was the family of some importance based at Bannachra, south of Luss, only recently transferred from Dunbartonshire to Argyll. McLachlans were part of the 1739 expedition to the colony that was to become North Carolina, lead by the Duncan Campbell of Kilduskland, brother-in-law of the then deceased Lachlan Maclachlan of that Ilk. Many of the Clan settled there over the following years until the War of Independence. Many more went to Canada during and after that war and a high proportion of their descendents have crossed to the United States. Soon others were attracted by the opportunities offered in Australia and New Zealand and, subsequently, there has been a regular migration direct from Britain to the USA. A Sennachie was the person in the Clan that knew of which family everyone belonged, more from political motives at the time than any other.  The person holding that title in the Clan Maclachlan Society today has been accumulating records of the name for many years from Scotland and from other places where Scots have settled as far away as New Zealand and Australia and as close as England.  Members of the Society have added to the records held for the use of members as well as to help others interested. There are very few families that are not on record at some period in the past three hundred years.It is a mistake to assume that the way your father spelt his surname is the way it has always been spelt.  Many Mc families have become Mac.  Two members of the Clan Society have made that change and then have reverted to Mc. That has not as common as were the changes wrought upon our name by teachers and other officials who heard the name spoken and wrote it as best they knew how.  Unfamiliar accents and deformity of speech lead to such variations as extreme as Maglothlen. For this reason the Americans introduced the Soundex code which ignores vowels, the easiest to distort, and give consonants, except the initial one, one of numbers 1-6 grouping those that could be mistaken for one another. Thus spellings of our name becomes M242. One example is that of a member, a retired major of the United States marines whose name is McLaughlin.  He discovered that his father’s uncle’s American Civil War record gave his name as Corporal Robert McLachlan.  It was then found that his emigrating ancestor was Sergeant Donald McLachlan of the Argyll Fencibles, an early military reserve of the time when Napoleon might have invaded Britain.  Further, it was found that the standard bearer of the American in charge of their army in France in 1917-18, General Pershing, was Corporal Robert McLachlan, Major McLaughlin’s father’s cousin who was killed in action. Information from the Clan archives is available to members of the Clan Society.

Don’t expect the Sennachie and/or the Clan Society to provide a service such as you might expect from a professional searcher who is paid to produce accurate results that can be proven in any set of circumstances.  The difference is that the professional can devote considerable time – as much as the client is prepared to pay for – to produce results. He/she might insure to cover any liability. The Society and the Sennachie does not but aims to be as accurate as the paid searcher by knowing what cannot be correct as well as believing what is to be so.  The ultimate facts could disprove the best possible research of the evidence available at any previous time.  Although professionals are loathe to give work away, they have been known to refer to amateur specialists.Furthermore, the Sennachie is to be regarded as a wholesaler of information, not usually searching for a particular family but accumulating series of similar data, like marriages and deaths, and supplementing them with other series, like census, sometimes to provide significant detail of some Clanspeople but the bare bones of birth, marriage and death of others.  Most Scottish Highlanders lived primitive lives, guided (some would say ruled) by the landowner and the Church.  In some parishes in the west and north, church records of baptisms and proclamations of intended marriage did not begin until some time in the early 19th Century, a relatively short time before the official national records commenced in January 1855. The registers in Scotland are open for general searches at a reasonable cost and so the core of the Sennachie’s store of information has been taken from the work of some of the world’s most reliable civil servants.

The names that you provide as clues would be checked against an Access database index providing the names of spouses and both parents, a date or approximate date of birth and a unique reference of letters and figures.  The Old Parish Registers of Scotland allowed only one Christian name, except in the case of the gentry, and so there were thousands of John, Mary and Margaret McLachlans but coupled with the spouse’s names the field of possibilities is reduced and with parents’ names, as well as some idea of the date of birth or marriage, one can be sure of a “hit”.Then ranking by the reference provides siblings, children, nephews and nieces, parents, uncles and aunts and so on.  The index ignores spellings of the surname with the exception that Lachlan, Lauchland, etc without the “Mc” or “Mac” are treated separately.  There are cases of McLachlans becoming Lachlans and of the opposite way round but they are believed to be rare occurrences.Card indexes, in the process of being complemented by computerised data, are checked against enquiries not found in the index.  There are several thousands arranged by men’s first names in separately coloured batches of generations of 30 years and sorted therein by wives’ surnames.  Parents’ names are written on the front of the card and childrens’ with essential information on the reverse to facilitate a move upwards or downwards in generations.  The disadvantage of cards is that sorting and re-sorting by options other than the one in which they are filed is so time consuming that it is not practical to attempt.  The advantage is that odd notes  van be added that cannot conveniently be provided for on a computer database. The most common problems arise from migration between one recording system and another.  It can be as hard to trace back from England to Scotland as from Arizona.  The American census shows the American state or the foreign country in which the person was born and those in which each of the parents was born.  From 1851 onwards the census of England and Wales shows the parish of birth of the person in either of those countries but merely “Scotland” if that was his/her country of birth.  It is an unexpected bonus when the enumerator is found to have exceeded his duty when the place in Scotland is entered on the form.

What you need to know before the Sennachie can help is the names of your known ancestors and those of spouses and/or mother’s name – her surname is the more important.  Age at marriage or death can help to distinguish between people of the same names but there was a time when calendars or other guides to dates did not exist in homes of most people.  They got out of whatever served as a bed when they awoke.  They knew the days of the week but dates were of little importance.  When grandma died her age was anyone’s guess and a ten year error was not exceptional in the case of an elderly person, although a few families’ had a better notion of time.Tombstone inscriptions were rare in Britain but much more common in the “New Countries” where resources were often better and the need of identity greater.  In that case, “native of the island of Jura” or some other recognisable location would probably be inscribed.  Be prepared for surprises.  Oral tradition is essential but the facts that you have are the best until something of greater provenance comes along.  Don’t dismiss the evidence because it does not fulfil your notion of your ancestor’s position in life or because it conflicts with existing understandings.  None are without some defect and few were without some positive features that don’t find a place in official records.  Keep an open mind.  Places of birth are sometimes confused when the mother followed the custom of returning to her parish of birth for that of her first child and so it might be registered in either (or both) of the two possible places without the recollection of the child in its adult life. Sometimes people who have been registered with one first name are known by another or those with two given names might be known by the second without realising that they were registered otherwise.When providing evidence for an enquiry into a person’s identity, give your sources of information where possible so that priorities in the value of information can be assessed.  “Tombstone says  ……” or “my mother once said”, “ birth certificate has the following ….” allows the searcher to understand where to expect certainty and where probability and possibility would allow for a variation from the facts given.Professions and occupations are often a guide to identification in another place or at another time.  People that have had a lengthy period of training in engineering or carpentry, medicine, accounting, etc seldom changed in mid-career but a labourer one year could become a farmer on marriage or the acquisition on even a small plot of land.  A sailor or a soldier could become a beerhouse keeper or spirits retailer in Glasgow, or he might have fallen into government post with skills or authority and reliability gained in the military. There was a well documented mid 19th Century case of a Welsh mother-in-law registering the birth of her daughter’s McLachlan first-born child in England while the father was at sea, assuming the name Robert of the father and, coincidentally also of the Welsh grandfather, as being appropriate.  The custom of the father’s family was that the child would be named after the paternal grandfather, Duncan, which name appeared in the census a little later.  The child was baptised Robert Duncan, presumably as a compromise. 

If an assumption has been made, never allow it to be more than just an assumption and do whatever can be done to prove or disprove it. The Sennachie, or any other competent advisor, might ask that you make further enquiries in your own locality to link the information that you have with what is readily available in Scotland or in Britain generally.  For example, a Californian may know his grandparents’ names but they were born in New Jersey and not in the Sennachie’s records.  A search of the appropriate census available in one of two Federal Archive Centers in the state or in several libraries will provide the information. If that information is of a family, two or more of which were born in Scotland, identification is reasonably possible.  A request to the appropriate county in either state might bring forth a marriage or birth certificate with very many interesting features including the names of members of the family born in Scotland.  Usually, the names of a man and woman married before leaving Scotland will match the same couple anywhere else unless they are as common as John McLachlan and Mary Campbell or Margaret Cameron.  The names of children born in Scotland and their ages will permit a match with the same group in a Scottish – or English census.   Many migrants from Scotland tried life in England first before realising that it was just as difficult there to improve standards of living as it was in Scotland.