开云体育

Do you have famous ancestors? Diane and I would love for you to share your information with this group. To make this easier we are suspending the rule of only discussing members of your direct line. If you are a Smith but your famous ancestor is a Jones that is OK for this discussion. We want you to feel free to join in and let us all enjoy some interesting stories. Who will be first? Jim and Diane

With the New Year I hope we can get back to our family research. You are encouraged to send in your questions, comments and any related information you would like to share. Best wishes, Jim and Diane

First of all, To all of you who are involved in the "front lines" of this corona virus war - Thank You for all you are doing. Without you we would be in dire straits. Secondly, Diane and I thought it would be a good thing to share what is happening in your locations as far as showing appreciation to everyone involved in fighting the spread of this horrendous pandemic that has plagued the world. Please feel free to share what your community is doing in that regard. We have all seen the firefighters gathered to applaud the health workers. Diane says that she and her neighbors stand outside their doors and clap for the health workers. She suggests singing (to the tune of "Happy Birthday") the following: Thank you very much, Thank you very much, Thank you front line workers, Thank you very much. What ideas do you have? What have you witnessed in your communities? We are together in this and shall come out of it stronger. Jim "Pops" Jackson and Diane Sowden

Thank you Jim and Diane for inviting me to join the group. I would like to tell you about my husband's 2Xgreat grandfather, Alexander McGregor. Alexander and Agnes Aitken had 5 children in Sydney, Australia between 1865 and1871. Details given on the birth certificate of first child Agnes, stated that they married 1863 in Campbell Town, New South Wales. Alexander's middle name was Campbell, age 33, born Perth, Scotland. I could find no marriage or evidence of a likely birth c1832 in Perth but there was a baptism in Gorbals, Lanarkshire in 1825, son of Alexander McGregor and Elizabeth Campbell. Another son, William Campbell McGregor, emigrated to Utah and I have verified the relationship through DNA matches with several of his many descendents there. I suspect that Alexander was unable to marry Agnes due to a previous marriage and have found a possible candidate. Alexander McGregor and Mary Lees married in 1851 in Old Monkland, Lanarkshire and had 4 children 1856-1862. In the 1861 census, Alexander, and Engine Grinder, is with his family in Glasgow but when his daughter died in 1867, Mary's father was the informant and in 1871 Mary is recorded as married but Head of the Family. There is no further trace of Mary's husband in Scotland. I think he left the family around 1862/3 and emigrated to Australia. Several Australian documents show Alexander as having similar occupations, Grinder and Engine Finisher. I hope to eventually find DNA matches with descendents of Alexander and Mary Lees to prove that these two Alexanders are the same person though will probably never know what prompted his actions.

I wrote a blog post just after Christmas that might be of interest to this group. I sure had a lot of fun with it. http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2019/12/rob-roy-tartan.html

Thank you, Jim, for your welcome and for having set up the groups.io mail list for the surname McGregor. I do not expect to find anyone who connects to me via this list. But I am going to accept your invitation to tell the story of my own McGregor family. It is as romantic as the surname itself. My McGregor family would be found in California. Robert McGregor was the captain of a boat (according to family lore he was captain….I have never found a Captain of a boat who fits his description) that carried Irish potato famine victims from Ireland to New York. During one voyage he fell in love with a young Irish woman named Mary Ann Hair. They were married in New York. Their first child was born in New York. This child was born c.1754. I don’t remember where I came up with this date. I have not put a source to the date. Sometime after the birth of Robert, James took work on a ship going to California. And after he was settled, Mary Ann and baby Robert sailed from NY to the isthmus of Panama where they rode a mule from the shore on the Atlantic to the Pacific. They then took another ship from there to San Francisco. I think that I have been told that one could take a boat from San Fran to Sacramento at that time….and that Robert met them in Sacramento. The couple raised their family in Cherokee, CA. It is now a rather well preserved spot in the California mountains. I was lucky enough to have visited more than 12 years ago. Robert’s tomb stone still can be read in the cemetery there. His stone says that he was born c. 1816 in Edinburg, Scotland. The family consisted of two other male children besides my grandmother’s grandfather, James. James had three brothers: William, Robert, and George. I have no information of any sort about brother Robert….except that he is listed as miner in a census. William was a miner and George very little about George either As I look through my files this morning, I see that in the census of 1900 Mary is listed as the head of the household at the age of 68, Annie (42). George (39), Kate (29) and William (32) are listed as living in the household-- In the Butte County 1890 Census: William Newton McGregor 21 B. Ca Miner The three sisters were teachers as was James for a while. One of the sisters was married to a James Riley. However, Tim Purdy found a divorce record for this couple in 1910. But there could be descendants from this couple. The surnames with a connection would be Riley, Hitt, and Mathans, Buchell, Santiago. I have done DNA testing at all five of the large companies. My results are identified by some combination of Marsha Ann Hawkins Moses on all five sites. I would love to hear from anyone who might be a McGregor match to me! I have recently sent a message to a match on Ancestry to a person who is an X match to me but is on my father’s side. That almost has to be either a McGregor or McKinsey match. But unfortunately Ancestry does not provide e-mail addresses and it might take years to hear back from that person. Best of luck to everyone with research. I am happy to share anything that I might know. marsha

Welcome to 开云体育, our new home for genealogical discussions. This is an exciting time with a very impressive website and the opportunity to rekindle our communications and, perhaps, revive research that has been set aside for a time. Diane and I want to encourage you to make us of this group with your brick walls, successes, questions and whatever answers you may have for others' queries. To begin with, introductions are encouraged, including some history about yourself etc. If we can feel like a "family" we might get more out of being here. We definitely do not want to make this such a strict environment that you are discouraged from entering or starting discussions. We want you to enjoy being a part of this group and be glad you joined in the first place. If you have other group connections where you may spread the word about us that will be great as well. Looking forward to hearing from you all, Jim "Pops" Jackson and Diane Sowden