Grand Narrows, Nova Scotia in modern times
When I went looking for the Scottish origins of John Breac MacNeil, I didn't get far. Not only was he a Catholic which made records almost impossible to find, but both of the places which were listed as his starting place in the old country had been subject to wide emigration and, in many cases, clearances. I am not sure that I will be able to find out anything about John Breac MacNeil in Scotland. Possible future research in Scotland includes the Highland Archive Centre in Inverness and the National War Museum in Edinburgh. A description of the museum library's holdings states: *"Particular strengths are the collection of regimental histories and holdings of the Army Lists from the 1740s." That gives me hope that there may be information about the 82nd Regiment which brought John Breac MacNeil to North America.
If I can't take the research on John Breac MacNeil's line backwards at this point perhaps, I can take it forwards. To do that I have taken the information from Rankin's genealogy and set it in a more readable form which you can see in the table below. This genealogy is a problematic source as it was drawn from people's memories. As a source memory can be faulty. When doing research, primary source documentation is preferred but you can only use what you can find.
The asterisks in the table indicate John Breac MacNeil's children whose own children were also included in Rankin's genealogy. As you can see, my main interest, John, the son of John Breac, doesn't have his progeny listed in Rankin. The notes labeled "named in will" refer to the will of John Breac MacNeil which only named some of his children.
Wills are a primary source that might give me some more concrete information about this extended family. So, I will look for the wills of John Breac MacNeil's children and see what they can tell me about family connections. It would be nice if I were able to find John Breac MacNeil's children in the census with their families but the first nominal census for Nova Scotia wasn't until 1871 which was too late to chronicle most of this extended family.
It looks like I also have a further problem. There are other locations listed in the table that are not in the area of Nova Scotia that I am familiar with. In the area that includes Malignant Cove and Doctor's Brook I know that the Roman Catholic Church was at Arisaig so any records, if they still existed, would be found there. I will have to find out more about the locations of Grand Narrows and Georgeville. Just putting these place names in Family Search to see what was available didn't get me very far. I'll have to see what I can find out with the limited resources I can access from home. Stay healthy out there everyone.
Sources:
Durie, Bruce. Scottish Genealogy: 4th edition. The
History Press, Stroud, Gloucestershire. 2017.
Rankin, Rev. D.J., A History of the County of Antigonish, Nova
Scotia (1929). Global Heritage Press/GlobalGenealogy.com Inc., Milton,
Ontario, 2003.
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