Kilbrandon and Kilchattan, Argyll

[Jill Richmond]

Hi Mike,

It is great to hear from you and to have found another cousin, but I haven't as yet worked out how many times removed!

Archibald's and Mary's family was as follows: Mary (born c. 1782), Margaret (born c. 1783), Ann (no DOB) Alexander (born 1791) [my gt.gt. grandfather] and Donald (born 1795) your gt. gt. grandfather. Mary was baptised on the Isle of Luing, but place of birth is unknown. Place of birth for Margaret and Ann is unknown, but probably Craignish. My gt. gt. grandfather was born at Soroba, Craignish and so was yours. Donald was a carpenter and lived out his life in Craignish and died at Airds, Craignish on 8th August 1877. Unfortunately I have been unable to trace the family further back than Archibald and Mary. I do not know where they came from, but a guess would make it one of the islands. It is possible (given the highland naming patterns) that Archibald's father was Alexander and Mary' father was Donald, but I cannot be sure.

I would be most interested to learn what happened to your family after they left Craignish. My gt. gt. grandfather, Alexander, who was a farmer, and his family left Craignish in 1841/42 and moved across to Crarae on Loch Fyne; and in the mid-1860s my gt. grandfather, Duncan moved to Govan. He and his wife, Betsy Cameron, had a large family (11 children: nine of whom grew to adulthood). My grandfather, Archibald, was their second son and fourth child. Archie became a doctor (as did his three sons) and moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. where I was born, the daughter of James Campbell Livingston and Jean Campbell. I married a veterinary surgeon, Brian Tyrrell Richmond, and we have two sons, James Livingston Richmond and Alistair Cowper Richmond and also three grandchildren; and that brings me up to date.

Hope that this is not too confusing.

Regards,

Jill

[mikewatson]

Hi Jill,

Thanks for your very interesting reply.

My gt. gt. grandfather, Donald Livingston (your gt. gt. gt. uncle) married Margaret McIsaac and they had 7 children: Ann (b. 1827), Anne (b. 1828), Mary (b. 1829), Archibald (b. 1830), Sarah (b. 1832), Margaret (b. 1837) and Alexander (b. 1839). Alexander was my gt. grandfather and he married Sarah Campbell (b. 1841, Sanquhar) in Greenock on 24/3/1865. They had 8 children: Ann, David, Jess (b. 1870), Euphemia, Margaret, Daniel, Alexander and Elizabeth Campbell Livingston (b. 15/5/1880), my grandmother.

Elizabeth Campbell Livingston emigrated with her 1st husband, David Orr, to Smith Falls, Canada in 1900 and they had 3 children, James Orr (b. 1902), Elizabeth Campbell Orr (b. 1904) and John Orr (b. 1906). David Orr died in Smith Falls, Canada, in 1910 and the widowed Elizabeth Campbell Livingston returned with her 3 children to Greenock. There she remarried to James Watson in 1912. Elizabeth Campbell Livingston and James Watson were my grandparents and they had 3 children, Eric Campbell Watson (b. 1914), Margaret Kerr Watson (b. 1916) and Matthew Livingston Watson (b. 1916 - d. 1996), my father.

Matthew Livingston Watson was an architect and married my mother, Edna Mary Patton in Perth on 25/8/1944. They had 3 children: Michael John Patton Watson (me), Eric Campbell Watson and Sheena Mary Watson.

I am a retired IT executive living with my Italian wife, Marina Mori, in Liguria in Italy.

There you are! Hope you find it interesting. If you've any questions, please get in touch!

Best regards,

Mike Watson

[Kyle MacLea]

Feel free to PM each other and exchange email addresses to continue the conversation, if you want to do so in private.

If you have trouble, let me know and I can provide email addresses for you.

What a great connection you have--and feel free to continue the conversation on the Forum as well, just wanted you to have the opportunity to keep it private if you wish!

Kyle=

[Jill Richmond]

Hi Mike,

Many thanks for your most interesting and informative post. I have more or less the same children for Donald Livingston and Margaret McIssac. However I clicked on Clan Web and Craignish births and found the following:

Anne 24 Feb 1827 Kirkton (name of property where born)
Mary 06 Oct 1828 Kirkton
Archibald 20 Sept 1830 Kirkton
Sarah 02 Oct 1832 Kilvoree
Margaret 17 July 1837 Kirkton
Mary 20 June 1841 Corranbeg
Donald 28 June 1843 Aird
Mary 18 July 1845 Aird
John 26 Aug 1847 Aird
Christian 01 Feb 1850 Aird
John 20 April 1853 Aird

So it seems that your gt. gt. grandparents had a eleven children, three of whom must have died in infancy. I am thinking of the first Ann you give, and also Mary born 1841 and John born 1847. Reusing names seems to have been quite common. My grandfather had two brothers called Duncan, the first of whom died in infancy. I have relisted the names of your forebears, as they may catch the eye of someone researching their ancestry in the same way that my listing Archibald Livingston and Mary McDougall caught yours.

A few years ago Brian said to me that I should write down all that I knew about my family so that our children and grandchildren would learn about their forebears. If you would be interested, I can let you have a copy, although the first half will be of greater interest to you than the rest of it.

Best regards,

Jill

[mikewatson]

Hi Jill,

Thank you again for the further information. I would be very interested in your family history and look forward to receiving
a copy.

I believe that if there are no privacy questions then publishing these types of details openly for any other forum member to read may, who knows, strike a chord with someone else and thereby create a new link to other interesting parts of the family tree. So, if it's OK with you, we could continue this on the forum. What do you think?

Best regards,

Mike

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi Mike,
Welcome to the Clan Maclea Livingstone Society forum. We are always delighted whenever a Livingston ancestral connection can be established through the forum. From time to time this occurs. Jill, I know has been working for quite a while now on her highland Argyllshire Livingston family line and it is very helpful to have located another with a shared ancestry and a story to tell about another branch of this Livingston family.

regards,
Donald (Livingstone) Clink
Historian
Clan Maclea Livingstone Society

[Jill Richmond]

Hi Mike,

I'm sorry to have been a while replying to your post, but life has been a trifle hectic recently.

In fact my family story already exits on the clan website, but it is in an issue of The Parnassus, which is the Clan MacLea (Livingstone) Society newsletter. It would be too long to put on the forum. However, I have two versions of this story and I would be pleased to send the one I wrote for my family, which is more detailed. With your permission, I will ask Kyle to let me have your email address.

Returning to the list of Donald's children which I posted recently, I see that there are a couple of errors in it. Christian should be Christina. It was Donald's daughter, Christina Graham, who informed the registrar of his death. Also, I gave you the name Dougald, but it should be should be Donald.

Regards,

Jill