I am just wondering if anyone else has had a problem with the Mc,Mac names in Scottish ancestry?

Question

I have been researching for a very long time, and am having the greatest difficulty with a G grandfathers name. The majority of my family are English, but when it comes to the Scottish its a nightmare.
I have my G Grandfather appearing in the 1881 English Census, and 1891, but as for finding him in the Scottish Census for earlier years is a nightmare, (both G grandparents were born in Perth Scotland apparently) and cannot find him or G Grandmother on 1901 England Census, not any of his children, bar my Grandad. Also when my Grandad and Granny had children the name changed from Mc to Mac.

I know that the many children the G Grandparents had were talked about as if they lived in England, and not so far away from my Grandad, but no trace.

The issue is also more strange as all Grandparents, historically worked for the Crown in Windsor in Windsor Great Park. I would have thought documentation would have been paramount there.

Any help would be appreciated.

No I am not in America.I am in UK.

My McMillan changed to Macmillan within a generation. And they are definitely Scottish.

Shirley T. My main concern is that I have put all variations in of the names, and have even put the children of G grandad in the search in Ancestry, but nothing of the family shows up before or after the dates I have shown in the main body of my question.

Answer 1

Everyone named Mac or Mc gets recorded the other way sometimes.

If you have an LDS church with a Family History center in it anywhere in your area, call and see if they have Scottish Parish records on CD (Not on-line). That might help.

Answer 2

Yes. I had a problem. The family lore, records, and the back of the tin-type said "Grandma MacTaggart." Some records said "McTaggart." Some family records merely said, "Taggart."

Official New England colonial , Presbyterian church & early US legal records always listed it as "Taggart."

I think they didn't want to attract too much attention to themselves, but they were willing to keep the family name within the family. It was a hop, skip and jump to make the connections. Names changed on this side of the pond when it was useful, especially when dealing with the English. I would not be surprised if there was similar confusion in your historical records.

(My Dutch side of the family was much more interesting in this regard, since they had to invent a common surname once the English annexed New Netherlands.)

Happy hunting!

Answer 3

Americans of Highland Scottish descent also often find surname changes from Mac to Mc within a generation of immigrating to the United States. Moreover, the spelling of the rest of the name often changes as well; for instance, Macquarrie morphs into McQuerry and McCreary. I'm not sure if this is because they switched from a Gaelic spelling to a more Anglicized one, or if they spelled the name phonetically. The same reasons, of course, might also apply to Highland Scots who moved to urban areas within Scotland or migrated to England.

What has helped me the most with tracing my family tree, however, is the Scottish system of naming children, which really didn't break down until the mid-20th century in my paternal grandmother's family:

---The first son was named after the father's father.
---The second son was named after the mother's father.
---The third son was named after the father.
---The fourth son was name after the father's oldest brother.
---The fifth son was named after the 2nd oldest borther or the mother's oldest brother.

---The first daughter was named after the mother's mother.
---The second daughter was named after the father's mother.
---The third daughter was named after the mother.
---Thie fourth daughter was named after the mother's oldest sister.
---The fifth daugher was named after the second oldest sister of the father's oldest sister.

If the same first names keep reappearing in approximately this order (the girls' names varying more than the boys' beginning in the last two decades of the 19th-century), the researcher can be fairly certain that he or she is looking at the right family. Of course, the problem then becomes which Archibald McDonald or Margaret Duncan is your Archibald or Margaret. This is particularly true when looking through census records for families who moved from the Cape Fear area of North Carolina to other parts of the American South.

You might also go online and contact a clan organization since many of the larger clans offer genealogical tracing services (once you pay an initiation fee); or at least in the US, the McDonalds and the Hendersons do. In some of the smaller clans, for instance, Macquarrie, this is done informally (without charge), people sharing attachments of their trees online, while larger clans often formally request that you submit whatever data you have, so the clan's genealogist can review it.

Answer 4

In genealogy you have to be prepared for various spellings of the same name. Actually the Mc is just abbreviation of Mac. Mc or Mac means son of.

It wasn't too many centuries ago when most people were not all that literate. A clerk wrote a name down the way it sounded to him and I feel that exactitude in spelling a name really wasn't all that important to people.

Answer 5

If you have been researching for a long time you will know that peoples names change because they have been wrongly transcribed at some stage,or simply by choice.And to Deejay you have a large number of points for someone who cannot spell Scot's and you emigrate out and immigrate in just for information.

Answer 6

My family have a Mac in them and I heard that the Macs come from Scotland and Mcs come from Ireland.
But that doesn't have anything to do with the question sorry! All I can suggest is to google the Macname and find the children, then go back and see if you can find their parents after.

Answer 7

My McC is Scotts Irish from Ulster.

Are you in America?

Did he immigrate to America?