Searching for Skye links

 

                                                                                    A view of Portree, Skye

Searching for ancestors in Scotland comes with challenges but some places are harder to find records for than others. My Scottish research has led me to two islands on the west coast of the country, Islay and Skye. I've been able to find a fair bit of information about my Islay folk, Skye is another story. Sometimes I feel like I'm grasping at straws. 

Strangely, when we visited the Glasgow and West of Scotland Family History Society, I found that they had few books about Islay, more of their library was devoted to publications about Skye. My friend was busy in the next room so I looked through some of the publications for my Skye names, one of which was Matheson. There were lots of possibilities but one entry stood out.

The death had happened in Macao, a place which immediately caught my attention. It stood out amongst all the other entries with Scottish places of demise. I wondered why such a death had been reported in an Inverness-shire newspaper. Reading further, I saw that the death was of a young man working for a Scottish company in Asia. The deceased was Alexander Martin Matheson, a native of Kilmuir on Skye. I knew my Mathesons had ties to Kilmuir. Perhaps they were related to the young man who had died.

Frustratingly, the names of Alexander's parents were not included in the report. What was included was the name of his brother, an outstanding member of the community. The brother was named as L. Matheson, Surgeon at Portree, Skye. That looked promising. If L. Matheson was a prominent man in Portree, he must have left records. So now I've started looking at this family of Mathesons hoping that they will link up with my own ancestors. Here's hoping that the records will take both lines back far enough that I can see if they converge. Even if they don't, searching through the information I find should give me a better idea of life on Skye at a time when my ancestors were living there.

Sources:

“Deaths as Reported in the Inverness Herald and Northern Herald Newspaper 1839 & 1844-1846” compiled by Stuart Farrell F.S.A Scot, Scottish Genealogy Society