Russ McGillivray: Family History

Articles

McGillivrays of Islay Project

Family Tree

From Islay:

McGillivray from Islay to Oro to Hamilton

Donald McGillivray and Sarah Ann McKaig of Hamilton, Ontario

From Tiree:

The Blood Still Runs Strong: Memories of the Tenth of Kincardine

From Cornwall:

Reynolds from Probus, Cornwall, England

United Empire Loyalists:

Frederick Baker, U.E. of Ernestown

Peter Davy, U.E. of Ernestown

Timothy Skinner of Stamford

Berczy Settlers:

Frederick Helmkay

My Brick Wall:

Emeline Draper

My Grandfather (pdf files):

Rev. Russell McGillivray

"Valley Days and Other Stories"

Richard Watson Dickson (pdf file):

Richard Watson Dickson

Genealogy Home Page of

Russ McGillivray

Genealogy has been a hobby of more or less intense interest for over 25 years.

My interest in family history has progressed to the point that I want to create, preserve and pass on the stories of our family.

This phase started simply with collecting all of the 'facts' about a particular ancestor in a narrative form as an aid to further research. Soon, however, I found that the pieces of data started to form a coherent and compelling story.

In some cases, I found that I was recovering stories that had been lost. No one of my grandfather's generation remembered any longer what part of Scotland their own grandfather, Donald McGillivray, had come from.

Now I believe our McGillivray roots are in Islay - famous equally as the home of great malt scotch and as the seat of the 'Lord of the Isles'. More than that, we now have images of Donald's childhood on the pioneer farms of Oro Township, the tragic choice he had to make as a young boy and his adventures as a sailor on the Great Lakes, as well as his untimely death in a railway accident.

There is the strange tale of my direct ancestor Richard Watson Dickson. He rose from rural Lancashire to become a medical doctor and an authority on agriculture and gardening. He encyclopedic works were published and remained respected texts for decades. Yet he ended his life in poverty and the treatment of his body after his death made headlines across England.

There are so many other stories to tell: the Loyalists who came out of the Mohawk Valley and Hudson River of New York and from New Jersey to start over again in Ontario; the Berczy settlers from Germany to Markham Township in 1794 by way of the Genesee; the Gaelic-speaking settlers from Tiree where there are no trees and it rarely snows, who faced the forests and blizzards of Bruce County on the shores of Lake Huron; the sons of the first settlers who defended their new homes in the War of 1812-14; the Canadian-born farmers, clerks and students who enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in World War 1; and more.

Donald McGillivray and Margaret Russell

Other Links:

Canadian Expeditionary Force

Over 30 relatives who served in Canada's armed forces during the First World War

Lest We Forget

Relatives who paid the supreme sacrifice in the First or Second World Wars

Other Family Links

Links to information on the Web related specifically to our family


© 2000-2011 Russ McGillivray

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.(Deut 7:9)

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