The McGregor Family Record - Our Beginning

Our McGregor’s and where we fit in

      With the letter from Charlotte MacGregor as a guide I was able to expand our family tree.  Charlotte’s grandfather, Peter was a brother of our John McGregor.  Her father, Alexander moved to Australia in 1863 and raised a large family.  A number of the letters in Jessie’s collection were from Alexander, a man proud of his Scottish heritage, his MacGregor name and his family. 
     From Alexander's letters I knew his MacGregor grandfather from Fortingall had joined the family in Thurso and was buried there.  The grandfather had at least two sons and possibly three, John, Peter and maybe Joseph.  There was also a daughter who married a Mr. MacIntosh and lived in Esquesing, Ontario.  
     From son John's marriage I learned that he was from the small village of Culdimore outside of Fortingall.  In the stronghold of the MacGregor Clan I never expected to find out who the MacGregor grandfather was.  Recently I was contacted by a researcher who found my McGregor information on Ancestry.  He had obtained a copy of Peter's death certificate which listed his parents as John & Catherine MacGregor.  David also provided me with the birth record for Peter and John which confirmed they were from the village of Culdimore.
      I am not sure who the sister was but John and family first stayed with her when they came to Canada.  I have tried to find out more about her by examining early maps of the area. I did find a John McIntosh in Esquesing, but I have not been able to find out anything further about this family.  If there was a brother Joseph, he apparently also came to Ontario.
     Peter moved from Fortingall to Edinburgh and later to Thurso, in Caithness where he married Agnes Balderston, 18 June 1834.  This was Peter's second marriage - he had four children with his first wife was Margaret Gunn. 

     Many of Peter & Agnes' descendents had the middle name of Balderston, which made connecting them to our family much easier.  I had hoped their marriage record would include the names of Peter’s parents – I was to be disappointed. 

      June 18, 1834 At Glasgow, Mr. Peter MacGregor, merchant at Thurso to wife Agnes Balderston, Daughter of Mr. David Balderston, #1 Coburgh Street, Linlithow  Wm. Ma?, Thomas Goodie & Ebenezer Steve merchants Thurso – celebrators.  The Rev. Alexander Turner.  

     According to Alexander: My father had a very good business in Thurso, a grocer and clothing store for over 30 years.  By that time, my older brothers went to Glasgow and very much wished the remainder of the family to follow, which we did in 1856.  Most of the family remained in Glasgow, Alexander was the only one to move to Australia.

     Alexander’s reconnection with the Canadian branch of the family shows how small the world was, even 100 years ago.  In this day and age of instant communication we look back and wonder how one tracked down long lost family members.  In Alexander’s first letter he was writing to inquire if the McGregor that had just passed away in Alton, Ontario, was his first cousin.  The Ontario family placed an obituary in the Glasgow newspaper – for a death that took place 70 years after the family came to Canada.  The cousin in Australia read the obit in a paper sent to him from Scotland.  The following is the letter he sent to Canada:

     “Oct 26^th, 1903  To the friends of the late Alexander Macgregor who died at 80 Uxbridge Avenue, Alton, Toronto, Ontario, Upper Canada.  The writer of this letter is Alexander Macgregor of Ipswich Queensland who left Glasgow, Scotland, in the year 1863 and who at that time had cousins in Alton, Caledon, Canada West and I see by my Glasgow papers the death of a Alexander Macgregor and am anxious to know if he was a relative of mine.  My uncle (John Macgregor) was well known in Alton at the time I mention.  He was a Justice of the Peace and carried on farming.  He had two sons and one daughter.  My Father’s name was (Peter Macgregor) and our family were all in Glasgow when I left home.  The families corresponded when I was at home.  But since I left Father, Mother, three brothers and two sisters, are all dead.  I am left alone of the family.  I would like to know if it is the death of a cousin I read about in my Glasgow paper.  I may mention that my father’s family were all born in Fortingall, Perthshire, Scotland that must have been about a hundred and twelve years ago.  If you would kindly answer this letter and that we are friends, I would write further.”

     From Jessie's correspondence with Alexander I had the sense that she was asking questions about the McGregor family history, an interest that both she and her son Victor shared.  Alexander briefly outlines the little knowledge he had of the Macgregor family:

    The Macgregors, they were and are a noble race.  I am very pleased that my name is Macgregor.  My father would not allow us to sign our name in any other way than I do myself.  There was no contraction. 

     10 July 1905  I never did hear of any of my father’s family except Uncle John and Joseph.  There may have been other brothers in Scotland but I can hardly think so, and what makes me think so...My grandfather lived in our family.  He died before I was born and he is buried in an old cemetery in the town of Thurso in the north of Scotland.  I have seen his grave.  Now if there had been any other brothers they surely would have written or have come to see their father.  I will say my own father told us boys and girls very little about his young days or about his family but the fact of him having his father living with him might be the cause of there being no use in talking about his family, and besides we were all young and would not take much notice of what we heard. 

     And in another letter:

     11 Dec 1912  My father, like your own, never told us much about his family.  But I remember quite well of him telling us that he, as also your father, were born in a place called “Fortingall” in Perthshire, Scotland and just before I left Glasgow in 1863 or just about 50 years ago, my father and I was to go to Fortingall so that he might see the old place and perhaps I to get a little information.  However, it was not to be as father took ill and could not go and shortly after I left for Australia.  When the old people left the old home in Perthshire, I do not know.  But I think my father must have left about the year 1827 or 1830.  He came to Edinburgh and afterwards got as far north as Thurso, where we are all born.

       Our Grandfather came to Thurso and spent the last of his days with my father.  He died before I was born or about 82 years ago.  He was buried in the churchyard in Thurso.  The number of sons grandfather had, I do not know.  Neither do I know if there were any girls.  Your father, my Uncle John and Uncle Joseph, I have heard spoke about.
      Alexander was born in 1839, John & family came to Canada in 1833 and son Peter was already established in Thurso.  Father John was a sheep farmer.  Was son John helping with the farm?  Was their move to Canada the reason father John moved to Thurso to be with Peter?