I had some doubts whether to write about this subject or not for quite a long time but then I realised that many readers from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the US have an interest in Islay Genealogy. I have a feeling that this post could perhaps help them out and if not they, and hopefully all the other readers, will probably appreciate the old images. The blog is from Laurie and Dave Harron and the post I'm talking about is about the descendants of Malcolm Bell (1780-1871) and Margaret McDuffie/McPhee (1783-1851) at Portnellan Argyle Islay. Portnellan, also spelled Portaneilan or Portenolen, was a farm at Kilmeny and further investigation learned that many people lived on these farms in the old days. If you read this post on the Rootsweb Islay list and the other messages in the thread there is an interesting paragraph about Portnellan farm: "On the census of 1841 there were 116 people living on the farm. In 1851 it looks like there were about 120 people." I can't tell if these numbers are correct but if they are I'm quite surprised.

Now back to the blog post. The title of this post is about Donald Bell and I quote a paragraph from it: "Donald Bell was born 11 May 1826 to Malcolm Bell (1780-1871) and Margaret McDuffie/McPhee (1783-1851) at Portnellan Argyle Islay Scotland. In 1853 he came to Canada with his writing desk and 2 gaelic testement books on the ship The Corra Linn. He purchased lot 7 con. 5 Proton twp. Grey co Ontario Canada. On Dec 4 1855 in Erin twp. Wellington co Ontario Canada he married Ann McFee (26 Mar 1830-Scotland) daughter of Archd McFee (1791-1868) and Sarah McLachlan (1799-1878) of lot 32 con 9 Erin the McFee's came to Canada in 1837." As I said above, the information might be very valuable to some people and perhaps the images can be too. There are ten images of people, I assume relatives of Donald Bell, and perhaps you recognise some ancestors from a long long time ago.

Tag: genealogy history portnellan