Welcome to the Digital Gathering 2020!

TEXAS MCFARLANDS

Mary Helen Haines ©2017

Texas was part of the Spanish Empire in the 1500s, but sparsely populated by Spaniards even as late as the 1800s.  Virginia native Moses Austin proposed a scheme to the Spanish colonial government to recruit and settle families from the United States. Events in Europe provoked the colonials of New Spain to revolt and declare their independence in 1821; Texas was now part of Mexico.

Moses Austin passed away, but his son Stephen won approval to carry out his father’s plan and settled 300 families by 1824. These settlers were given land grants in two amounts: a sitio, 4428 acres for stock-raising, and a labor, 177 acres for farming. Among the “Old Three Hundred,” as they came to be known, were two McFarlans: Aechilles McFarlan (1 sitio in Brazoria County, and 1 and ½ labor in Waller County), and John McFarlan (1 ¼ sitio and 1 labor in Waller County), both on the Brazos River. There were also several Rabb families in Wharton, Ft. Bend, Fayette and Matagordo counties, as well as many Williams families. This land was rich bottomland along the lower Colorado and Brazos rivers, near modern-day Houston.

Twigs to Trees

June, 2020

Mary Helen Haines

Please extend a welcome to Peter E. McFarland, our newest addition to the Genealogy team. I have known Peter since the beginning of CMW when we were working on his lineage, extending his Wilson County, Tennessee roots back to North Carolina. Since that time his DNA cousins have grown by leaps and bounds. When you read the June issue of Loch Sloy! look for the articles posted by Susan Kromer Hunt, whose husband Bill is a part of Peter’s line, as is Billy Eason McFarland, one of our current Directors. Ryan McFarland, another Director, is one of his DNA cousins. Please read his introduction on our genealogy page at https://www.clanmacfarlane.org/public_html/genealogy/getting-started.html

It is hard to know where to start….I was so looking forward to gathering in San Antonio, and then in Scotland this summer; however, we are all staying safe at home. When I was thinking about this quarterly column and what to write; it came to me in the middle of the night…does that happen to you also? I started thinking about the MacGregors and the MacFarlanes; two rival clans, like the Capulets and Montagues, and the Hatfields and McCoys.

Although they were rivals, they also collaborated, and sometimes intermarried. One of the places CMW visited in our 2014 trip to Scotland was the final resting place for one such couple: Duncan MacFarlane and his wife Katherine MacGregor on the Isle of Inchcailloch in Loch Lomond.

If all goes well, CMW will be visiting this site again in 2021. For those on the 2014 CMW trip, this can be a trip down memory lane. For those who will be traveling at some time in the future, this can be a preview of just one of the great MacFarlane sites to visit.

At the southern end of Loch Lomond is the Balmaha boatyard, currently owned by MacFarlanes who are descended from Duncan and Katherine. It is just a short boat ride to Inchcailloch and then to Inchfad, where Duncan and Katherine made their home.

This area is all a part of Buchanan Parish in Stirlingshire, where their records can be found. Just across the Loch is the town of Luss in Dumbartonshire.

Duncan MacFarlane was born about 1735 in Stirlingshire, and married Katherine MacGregor in 1756. Duncan and Katherine are in our database here: https://www.clanmacfarlanegenealogy.info/genealogy/TNGWebsite/getperson.php?personID=I9140&tree=CC

The latest issue of the Scottish Banner is now available for our paying members to enjoy.

 Please Select the attachment link below to read.  (for our paying members only.)