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From: "Gracie" <>
Subject: Maybe some interest to some??
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2000 16:30:18 -0700

Hi there all listers!
A friend of mine recently gave me some issues of"Celtic Heritage". It is a small magazine published in Halifax, Canada 6 X's a year. In reading through some of these I have come across some info that many outside of this vast country may not know. Of two of the magazines I have found some interesting stories that some of you may be interested in or have a family connection to. I am going to re-type bits and pieces of the articles and if anyone is interested in the full story I will gladly photocopy and send to you, as I don't know if scanning will be clear enough. Anyway here goes.........

This taken word for word......
" Between 1830 and 1860 , some 2000 Highland migrants moved to southern Quebec's Eastern Townships-the farmlands to the east of Montreal that stretch from Lake Champlain to the Quebec Maine border. The region was first opened for settlement by the British in the early 1790's."
"The highland settlers of the mid 1840's and 1850's were mostly of the Scottish potato famine of 1846-51, a disaster that is less well documented that the Irish famine of that era but was just as devastating. Others were crofters and small holders from their traditional homes in Scotland by estate factors and landlords, says Margaret Bennett, an Edinburgh based singer, author and scholar from the Isle of Skye who has made a 20 year study of these migrant communities."
"The first of these Gaels arrived in the 1830's; most came between 1846 and 1856"
"Land granted to the Highland settlers in Quebec was the rockiest, stoniest-almost like Harris transplanted: huge rocks and very inhospitable land, very hard to farm, sour,marshy and sheer hard work. The oldest person I've ever interviewed was one of these settlers: a woman called Maryann Morrison who in 1888 had sailed to Quebec as a 13 year old girl on an immigrant ship. She was born in the 1870's and lived to 107."
"Another memorable phrase about those times came from another old lady, Christie MacKenzie. "I commented that she hadn't had it easy" She said,"No my dear, but we had an axe, a saw and a Bible"
"Even from the early days of the settlement, the harsh life encouraged and sometimes enforced out migration. By the 1880's the young men were going west to become cowboys and miners.By the 1920's they were going to Detroit, to work in the car industry. Boston was the other attraction; girls would go there to go into domestic service."
"Today, a number of villages still carry names that originally came from Lewis and Harris: names like Tolsta(Tolastadh), Galson(Gabhsunn), Stornoway, Balallan and others. The telephone directory has its share of MacDonalds, MacArthurs,McIvers, Morrisons and Murrays."
"The story of the "Megantic Outlaw" Donald Morrison, Quebec's answer to Rob Roy, is an enduring legacy to Quebec from the highlanders who settled in the Eastern Townships 150 years ago."
"Donald was one of 7 children of Murdoch (Murdo)Morrison and Sibla MacKenzie from the Isle of Lewis who arrived in Quebec in the autumn of 1841."

***From here there is a full article on this family. It also includes bits and pieces on a Colonel Malcolm B. MacAulay.
The rest of the article is a wonderful piece of history and info on this man Donald Morrison. So for anyone out there that may have interest in these names, please let me know and I will forward the entire article to you.

Regards, Elaine in Alberta, Canada

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• Maybe some interest to some?? by "Gracie" <>