Twigs to Trees
September, 2022
Mary Helen Haines
I hope some of you have escaped the sweltering heat by going to beaches or mountains this summer. Our members in Canada have had a busy summer hosting games now that things have opened up again, and we look forward to our AMM at the Stone Mountain games in Atlanta, Georgia in October. Terrance MacFarlane, a member of our Genealogy team, spent part of his summer in Scotland and was able to attend the signage dedication at Elan Vow (see below). In this issue of Loch Sloy! my investigation into McFarlands who settled into Ohio in its first years as a state are chronicled in Part Two.
In Scotland, work has continued by The Elanvow Preservation Fund (Ellan Vhow Preservation Fund). It is a 501(c)(3) created in 2012 by Bruce McFarlin and his daughter Katherine to study, preserve and protect the structures at Island I Vow (various spellings). They are an example of how one person (in this case two) can make a difference. MacFarlane descendants all over the world have made the pilgrimage to visit the island structures at I Vow and Inveruglas built by MacFarlane chiefs, but not many have taken the time and effort to preserve what ruins are left. Over the years, projects funded by EVPF and supported by individual gifts to the Fund have paid for the documentation of the structures and the removal of invasive ivy covering the walls, live trees threatening the structures, and dead trees that had fallen into the ruins. Because of that work, more of the castle walls are visible to visitors and the structural integrity of the buildings is better preserved.
Twigs to Trees
June, 2022
Mary Helen Haines
Good day CMW members. Thank goodness we have middle-names today to help distinguish ourselves. It has always been difficult teasing out the various Roberts, Johns, and Williams in our MacFarlane lines. That is where DNA has helped to separate fact from fiction in our various genetic lineages. When I received our newest member’s genealogy form, with ancestors named King and Armour, I was thrilled because those are rather rare MacFarlane names. I went to our database to find other members with those unusual names. That led me to Ohio McFarlands, and like pulling a thread, I was soon digging into all the early Mcfarland settlers in Ohio. Part One will appear in an article following this short column.
Back to the Armour McFarland line: Armour McFarland was born abt. 1747 in County Tyrone, Ireland. Although I have not seen any written records as proof, family tradition has it that his father was John McFarland, and his mother named Mary Ann Armour. There are families with the Armour surname all over Ireland in records from Cork, Antrim, and Donegal counties. The name originally derived from the occupation of an armorer, combining Middle English and Old French. In the 1830s several of Armour McFarland’s adult children decided to immigrate. It appears that at least three went to Canada and one went to the U.S. While the King name was passed down often in the Canadian descendants, it does not appear in the Ohio descendants of Patrick McFarland Sr. (1773-1841) who arrived with his family in 1831, and soon purchased a land grant in Coshocton county. There are a slew of Armour McFarlands (in various spellings) in Canada, the U.S. and Northern Ireland. So far, we do not have a Y-DNA tester from this line. I hope that will change; it would be great to unite the families on both sides of the Atlantic.
Twigs to Trees
March, 2022
Mary Helen Haines
Welcome to 2022! I am constantly amazed at how quickly time goes by. This is the 46th Twigs to Trees I have written since our inception in July 2010. We have published over 400 members’ abbreviated pedigrees like the ones below, but would love to have all our other 400 plus members who have not submitted their lineages to please join us in our efforts to make connections.
If you have any special stories to share about men and women in your lineage, please let me know so we can find a place, either in our newsletter, or on our website, to share their stories. We don’t want to forget those special people who contributed to our heritage, and the best way to remember them is to put it in writing and release it to the Ethernet.
This past couple of months I began looking into the Scots-Irish families that came to Maine in the early 1700s as part of the movement from northern Ireland to New England. In particular, I researched three areas of Maine: Brunswick, Boothbay, and Bristol. The article is located here in this website: https://www.clanmacfarlane.org/public_html/genealogy/genealogical-histories/529-the-early-mcfarland-settlers-in-maine.html