Here's another Canadian MacVay connection, which I've been researching
for about 12 years. My great-great-grandfather was Alexander MacVay,
who was born in Antrim county, Ulster (in 1812) but always identified
himself as a Scot. He married Eliza Armour, whose family was from
Renfrewshire, Scotland and they had several children.
Probably because of the famine, they moved to Renfrewhsire for a brief
time (I believe Alexander's family may have been from there too). Then
they moved across the Atlantic to New Brunswick, Canada, where they
settled on a farm in Little Ridge (just outside St. Stephen, across the
river from Calais, Maine). Alexander and Elizabeth remained there until
they died in 1896. Among their children were two boys, William and
Joseph. They became stonemasons and began a thriving business. William
married Frances (Fanny) MacArtney, almost 20 years his junior, and they
had several children.
When a steel mill was built in Sydney, on Cape Breton Island in Nova
Scotia, William moved his family there and became a bricklayer at the
mill (as did his sons). William and Fanny had one more child in Sydney,
my grandfather MacVay. William worked until he was 82
and died in 1932 at the age of 88.
Alexander and Eliza MacVay had many descendants, but the only ones who
bear the MacVay name are myself, my brother, my father, and two
half-sisters. I did find a MacVay in Florida who was the great-grandson
of Joseph MacVay (my great-grandfater's brother), but I think he may
have since passed away. The only ones left to carry on the MacVay name
are me and my brother.
It's nice to see other MacVays/McVeys/etc. doing research into the
various branches of the family. I'm hoping to someday get beyond
Alexander MacVay and find some connection between him and the more
'ancient' MacVays in Scotland. I'd love to know how someone from a
family of hereditary physicians in the Highlands ended up in a family
of farmers in the Lowlands (and later in Ulster). The family's Gaelic
roots have been a favorite study topic of mine, especially since many
members of my family (mostly MacLeods and MacDougalls on my mother's
side) spoke Gaelic right up till the mid 20th century on Cape Breton
Island. I have a cousin who still speaks it, and I've been learning it
off and on for years.
As far as I know, Alexander MacVay didn't speak any Gaelic, but it was
definitely the language of the MacVays at one time. Of particular
interest is the fact that the MacVay (MacBheatha) physicians had
medical texts of the great Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd (known in the West as
Avicenna and Averroes, respectively) in Gaelic before they were
translated into other European languages. To me, this lends more weight
to the theory that these MacVays originally came from Ireland in the
train of an Irish Princess, Agnes O'Cahan (her name has several
spellings), who was married to Angus Og, one of the Scottish Lords of
the Isles. It is known that Irish scholars often studied at the schools
in Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), so that could be how the MacVays came to
possess those foreign texts which enabled them to become more advanced
than other physicians in Scotland (another possibility is that they
knew Latin, the only other European language into which those texts
were translated, and therefore never had to leave Ireland/Scotland to
come into possession of them).
Anyway, it's all very interesting stuff. I look forward to learning
more, and I look forward to seeing info on other branches of the family.
Cheers,
Jordan MacVay
email: "Jordan MacVay" cb_highlander(atsign)hotmail.com or jfmacvay(atsign)gmail.com
Subject: Another Canadian MacVay line
Date: Sat, 09 Nov 2002 03:17:17 -0400
