Those Places Thursday - Buckie

Going back in the Cowie and Smith lines the families seem to have always lived in and around Buckie.

This was my Grandparents house at 14 Cluny Terrace in Buckie. 

I loved this house 

Things I  remember.

The roses and mint plants either side of the path. 

The covered porch that you could go in either to the hall or the kitchen. 

The steep set of stairs in the middle of the house leading up to two bedrooms in the roof. 

The posh sitting room with all the ornaments the organ and the picture of the Gospel Ship

The box bedroom next to the comfy living room with Gran and Grandads chairs. 

The pantry and kitchen that seemed to go on for ever

The wee door to the shop in the back that Gran and Grandad used to run with it's own address. 

The sofas and dressers that opened into beds, 

and the amount of family that could fit a small house all at the same time. 

This one photo brings back so many happy memories. 

Those Places Thursday - Lewis

Researching the Mcleod line back with the help of information from other family members and hebridean connections has taken me back to Neil Macleod, also known as Niall Mhurchaidh Bhàin who lived from around 1756-1800 on Lewis in Scotland. 

He was from Mangersta, and left the village for Vuia Mhor. He was married to Catherine Mackenzie and they lived on Vuia Mhor where they raised a large family. Ten of their children emigrated to Cape Breton in the 1820s.

However two of the children stayed in Lewis both called John.

The elder John known as Iain Og married Mary Smith, also from the island, and continued to live there. John is said to have died on Vuia in his 60s, which must have been around 1840. The island was cleared then and his widow, his son John (also Iain Og) and a daughter left the island.

The younger John (1783-1869) was my 3rd great-grandfather. He married Margaret Macarthur and later married Marion Smith from Valtos, Uig.

He was a witness for the defender at the second hearing of the Lewis/Harris boundary dispute (his grandfather Murdo was a witness at the first hearing).

John and Marion lived in Balallan, Lochs as did their son Malcolm and his daughter Ann before she moved to work in Glasgow and married William Duncan. Ann was my great-grandmother.

I know some of the family still live up in Lewis and would love to visit sometime