1. The Morrison Family and its Links to French Acadians in Canada
The Morrison Family
From Alloa Clackmannanshire Scotland
To Bathurst New Brunswick Canada
A Story Spanning 235 Years
Connecting Family By Science
A Compilation of Family Historical Events
Introduction
Finding new cousins, is rather interesting, finding 2000 of them, at once, is a bit overwhelming.
Such is the new methods attributed to Family History research. While it was all very much a case of Double Dutch to me, when it showed that my DNA matched with over 2000 Acadian French Canadians, I became a very firm dis-believer.
After asking some questions, and trying to work out how, a few emails were sent to others who also showed a match with my records. Unfortunately this part is the only way forward, and people just do not answer and email. Except for one person, whom I had initially discounted, as there was not one name in his family tree that sounded familiar, just one record of a person named Morrison.
In order to find one link to the cousins, required some co-operation from someone willing to provide some details. That family name was Morrison.
We worked on that relationship, and confirmed our matches, as being from Scottish ancestors. My sixth cousins, married French residents. Those French residents had their beginnings, in the first Arcadian Settlements of Canada.
But another very nice cousin also answered my email. We held even closer links. But Ron had not done his family tree, so he wasn't able to help. At the time, I was knee-deep in creating a family tree for my brother in law, born in America, who matched with me, born in Australia. What were the odds? Again, I didn't think it possible. Until someone told me "DNA does not lie."
That link found, it was time to unravel the many names among the 2000 French Canadians, and the only way was to work backwards on Ron's family, and try to compile a full family tree, in order to find which particular grandparent we shared.
And finally they did.
In establishing lineages, one thing that I believe is important, is to try to source the ancestors lives, prior to settling in one of the Colonial countries. In Australia, the first settlers were convicts, with an enormous amount of historical records, but that was 1788.
In America, the settlements began c 1600, first with Jamestown, then the settlements of New Amsterdam, and other places. My brother in law and I matched DNA. He was born and bred in America, as I was in Australia. He had no family tree, so a huge research project began. I did find the links, in England, and we shared 12th great grandparents. A grandson was sent to America, and so began the lineage there. In the early settlements, there were few choices for marriage, so siblings from one family, marry siblings from another.
It gets rather confusing. The same thing has happened with the early settlers in Canada. Perhaps all these intermarriages has helped to "strengthen" the DNA results.
Along the way, there are countless history lessons, not the sort taught in a classroom, because these are real people, relatives, even though at times, quite distant relationships.
The amazing part of being able to tell this story, and to be able to link the different Arcadian Settlers into my own lineage, is that without the extensive amount of researchable material available about my ancestors, not one connection could be made.
Over the past 6 years, there have been times, when I was literally stunned, to learn so much about my great grandparents of days long gone. Stories that spanned over a thousand years, and the exact reason, that my ethnicity consists of Western Europe 61%, English 24% and Scottish 14%. That was a huge initial shock, for this, "English" person.
My father was born in Scotland, his grandmother who was also his aunt, emigrated to Canada in the late 1700's. If anyone was going to match with me, I was positive it may have been from her.
But then why such closer links? My 4th great grandfather Major Andrew Durnford, was a Royal Engineer, he and his brother served in Canada, and my cousin worked as Chief Engineer for 20 years in Montreal. He worked on and designed the Rideau Canals.
Was this the link?
These cousins though, do not share my Western European heritage, nor did my 4th great grandfather. All those strong links came through my 4th great grandmother, Jemima Isaacson.
Was then, an Isaacson cousin part of the story? But after establishing the Scottish connection, my assumption was that all DNA trails led back to one set of great grandparents. They lived in Scotland, in an area called Alloa.
When John, Isabelle, and their children boarded the sailing boat in the Allora Harbour, they must have been very apprehensive about their future. Unbeknown to them at the time, it was a trip that so many of their kinfolk would undertake, during the Highland Clearances.
But to be able to bring them to "life", to share their family, and to provide some answers for many a Canadian Acadian Family, is rather special. We will never know the hardships and difficulties that these early settlers in either Canada, America or Australia really endured. Australia was a little different, thankfully, we have not suffered the internal wars that Canada and America have faced.
They have, in their own way, created "history". Not one of them would ever think that 235 years later their descendants would be on a quest for answers, as to whose DNA lay within their genes, and to find which of the Morrison parents was the one we inherited our DNA from.
Like the family, Alloa has also aged, and industries operate no longer. It once was the home of a brewery. Mary Queen of Scots, stayed in the Castle, and just up on the hills, is the town of Stirling, home of the Battle with William Wallace.
Scotland is a beautiful country, peaceful now, with no wars and fighting between the Clans and Chiefs. My father was born in Greenock, in a tenement. Being Scottish, for me, brings a certain pride. Besides those bagpipes give me goosebumps whenever I hear them play.
The town of Alloa in Clackmannanshire has greatly expanded since Slezer's day. This view shows the 15th-century Alloa Tower and, beside it, Alloa House. Mary Queen of Scots and her son James stayed in the tower, which was the ancestral home of the Earls of Mar. In Slezer's time the property was being greatly expanded, and had extensive gardens.
Much of that palace was destroyed by fire in the 1800s, with only the tower being saved.
Image from Theatrum Scotiae by John Slezer, 1693. Allowa, a Town in Clackmannon-shire, and seems to be the same Ptolomy calls Allauna, is situated on a pleasant Plain to the North of Forth; and hath a convenient Harbour for Ships of Burthen, many of which come thither for Salt and Coals. Here the Earl of Marr, Chief of the Areskins, hath a pleasant Dwelling with a Wood adjacent.
Alloa (/ˈæloʊə/; Scottish Gaelic: Alamhagh, possibly meaning "rock plain") is a town in Clackmannanshire in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It is on the north bank of the Forth at the spot where some say it ceases to be the River Forth and becomes the Firth of Forth. Geographically, Alloa is south of the Ochil Hills, 5.5 miles (8.9 km) east of Stirling and 7.9 miles (12.7 km) north of Falkirk; by water Alloa is 25 miles (40 km) from Granton
The Earl of Mar owned many of the coal mines, and Robert Bald, a local mining engineer, was contracted to provide water power from the Gartmorn Dam to operate the mines and other industries. Good water supplies and the availability of barley from the carselands encouraged George Younger to set up a brewery in the 1760s and he was soon followed by others. Alloa became one of Scotland's premier brewing centres.
Unfortunately, the 6th Earl of Mar, who oversaw many far-reaching developments including substantial harbour improvements, a customs house and the building of the Gartmorn Dam, was forced to flee the country and forfeit his lands after disastrously backing the Jacobite cause in 1715. However, his brother was allowed to purchase the forfeited lands and future generations continued the tradition of creative industry by launching a glass-works in 1750 and laying one of Scotland's earliest railways (a waggonway) from the Sauchie mines to down to the harbour in around 1766.
Before 1775, the colliers were attached to the properties in which they were born and were virtual serfs or slaves, supported by the master. After an Act of Parliament which abolished the system, the colliers could move between collieries at will, and they were supported in their needs by the Alloa Colliers' Fund or Friendly Society which was founded in 1775
There are several old maps which have been digitised
to give an overview of the Scottish Towns.
Much large now than in the days when the Morrison children played in the
fields. No doubt they looked at the
skyline, and would have been unaware of the battles that were fought closeby.
Their grandchildren
though would have been involved in the erection of the Wallace Monument
The surname Morrison is derived from the patronymic form of the personal name Morris. This personal name is a variant of Maurice, and was quite popular in the Middle Ages. The mainland Morrisons descend from a Norman named Maurice. The senior line of the mainland Morrisons were the Morrisons of Bognie Castle in Aberdeenshire. Many of the mainland and lowland Morrisons derived their name this way. The Morrisons of Perth and Lennox derive their surname in this way.
Within the north-east of Scotland, the Morisons of Bognie, in Aberdeenshire, are the principal 'Morrison' family. They are thought to be unrelated to the west coast (and Hebridean) Morrisons The first laird of Bognie was Alexander, whose son married Christian Urquhart, Viscountess Frendraught.
The current representative of the family is Alexander Gordon Morison of Bogie, 13th Baron of Bognie. Until the last century, this family was the principal armigerous 'Morrison' family. The family first gained the Bognie estate in the first part of the 17th century.
The coats of arms of the Morisons of Dersay (or Darcie), in Fife; and the Morisons of Bognie; and the Morisons of Prestongrange utilise Moor's heads.
This is a pun on the surname; an example of canting arms. According to the 19th-century historian William C. Mackenzie, it is uncertain whether or not these Morisons have any connection with the Lewis Morisons. Mackenzie noted that in the beginning of the 17th century, a son of the laird of Darcie went to Lewis to negotiate for the release of the Fife adventurers who had been held hostage.
The Harbour, the Morrison's no
doubt left Scotland's shores from somewhere in the location.[1]
Before undertaking this research, the closest association with Canada in the 1700's was my 4th great grandfather, and another Durnford cousin. They fought battles, their names and reasons of no consequence. That was until I realised that my maternal ancestors were fighting my paternal ancestors! The Battle? It was called the Siege of Louisburgh.
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