Recently, I was on Ancestry checking out common links on family trees. As I remember, my search was for information on the surname Ross. My earliest matrilineal ancestor that I know of, Ann Ross, came from the Isle of Skye. I wanted to see if I could link her back to a line of McPhersons on Skye or in some of the surrounding areas. According to written sources, her mother had the surname McPherson. I didn't have much luck with that but one of the trees I looked at had McCuaigs in Kildalton, Islay. Back in the days of genealogy by email, I'd had a lot of correspondence with family historians on the track of McCuaigs. They'd told me that my line linked to members of that family. So I got sidetracked and brought further south in my links to the Western Isles.
Islay links seem much easier to research than those on Skye. Perhaps that's because there are so many more record sets available. More books seem to have been written about Islay as well. In fact, I picked one up on my latest foray into Scotland, Land of the Ilich: Journey's into Islay's Past. It looks interesting. According to the list of contents, the book delves far into the island's past. Genealogy doesn't take me back quite that far although there is a chapter about Vikings that might give me some ideas.
Maybe someday I'll know if my Viking roots go back to when the northmen were on Islay. For now, I'm more interested in recent family links to the island. Specifically ones that connect with the White Hart Hotel. I stayed at the hotel once when I was in Port Ellen, but, unfortunately, nobody there could tell me about the hotel's history. Through records, I was able to find that the McCuaig family lived there. That's according to the valuation roll for 1885-1886. Also, in the back of my mind, I remember finding a strong link between the Hunters from Glenegedale, who were my lot, and the White Hart Hotel. I proved it to my own satisfaction at one time. Now I need to find the research that backs up that memory.
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