'If there is a big gap in your immediate family tree, something about your self is missing ' Quote Alan Cumming in Who Do you think you are?'
This summer saw me get totally side tracked into searching my family tree. A job that was put off for years because I never met my grandfather and had no information about him or even knew his correct name. All that we knew about him was handed down from my Great Great Uncle Donald Fraser Sutherland who lived to be one hundred years old and whose life in itself was an interesting story in that he went to USA to became a cowboy on the Oregon Trail in the 1880's. I knew about him and his exploits - that he had gone to America and Canada to visit his then cousins to ask them for a job on the Mclaey Sutherland shipping line. We knew from him they had said 'No' in New York, because as he put it he could not read or write. The slight from these cousins may have been from earlier feuds that had gone on in Scotland. However examination of shipping records showed that he had entered North America by Pier 21, Halifax, Nova Scotia more than once.
For me I had to use logic to fill in the gaps and between 2003 to 2008 I went through hundreds of Sutherland references and people all over the world. This one fact below was the key.
In 2009 when I checked the 'Donald Sutherland' cousin family tree there on line. (readily available in various forms) in it was the mention of the Mclaey Sutherland shipping outfit of 2 vessels which travelled the Nova Scotia Coast at the same period as my Great Great Uncle visited. Albeit it this mention showed it was a beaten up commercial shipping arrangement for carrying cargo and did not last long. The McLaey name is very very rare and was handed down in the second name given to my brother,
Canadian Cousins?
So who were these likely cousins in Canada? Well they share the same name and profession. When a chance meeting took place with Rossif Sutherland (actor) Donald Sutherland's son there in Halifax at the Atlantic Film Festival in 2009 and I gave him a list of my family names, it was certainly no surprise that in serendipity I met him some six month later at the Berlin film Festival and he proudly introduced me to his fellow actors saying 'This is Mairi Sutherland, We are related' - knock me over with a feather, but that was correct and so funny to see there was no argument about it even though none of us in our families, had ever met before that time. It seemed the Canadians had more information than the Scottish poor relations even if not consciously.
Forsaken
In 2008 when I started to look at the family tree, I sent the above story about cowboy Donald Fraser Sutherland to Kiefer Sutherland when he was in prison on the Drunk Driving charge. I had no idea he had got this information until a similar story line came out in the Western film he made called Forsaken and you can get a copy of that here (click on the word here to go to link) I like to think he knew.
(The jury is out on all that supposedly but it does not really have to be, because further recent research shows the McLaey Sutherland links go back a long way and over 200 years.)
How irksome that my father another Donald was an ex soldier in the 51st Highland Division of World War 2 , was too much of a gentlemen to contact the Canadian Mclaey Sutherland's all those years. More so because he knew that they might steak a claim on the house that my grandmother had taken in Ullapool from my absentee grandfather but she really needed this house to make a living from bed and breakfasts when she came back from Argentina. Now having delved into the whole thing I really respect my father and the fact he let it go. He knew the Mclaeys, Mackenzies, Sutherlands and the Fraser's on both sides of the Atlantic had fallen out over land and money many times. He was having nothing of it. Not one for being a sycophant, his principles were the thing. He was an active politician for many years in the SNP and worked hard for the community.
But who was my grandfather?
After that however I was troubled by something because I wanted to know more about my grandfather. He was a mystery to me because he died in Argentina in the 1920's though born in Scotland... My father was 2 years old when he left Argentina on the boat back home with his 4 other brothers and sisters. I wanted to find the grave of who I found out was John Alexander Sutherland. As yet I have not succeeded in that but I found out so may other things that it has been an incredible journey. I started to google a combination of family names only to discover they were in a huge family tree of my grandmother Barbara MacKenzie published on line by a Canadian cousin, who had traced all of the MacKenzies of Coigach in a huge extended family tree of her and many other lines, including the Mclaeys.
The Argentina Cousins seen here (click on here to go to Patagonia site) are mainly passed away but what a wonderful place? The work of the Patagonia website truly brings the past to life.
Book in U-Haul
Finding MacKenzie Cousins in Canada
I immediately contacted the genealogist who had compiled it. His information is here at the website link though the tree remains private. He encouraged me to try to find my Father's birth certificate and find out more about my grandfather that way. Low and behold we found it and though it was in Spanish I got to understanding his name was John Alexander Sutherland and that his father was William Sutherland and he, my great grandfather was married to Catherine McLaey and so those names had already cropped up on both sides of the Atlantic it seemed that there must have been more to find out. Certainly there was, because when I told the genealogist he was reminded of an entire book about the MacLaey Sutherland's that was in his U-haul Storage. By this time I know he, the genealogist was a Mackenzie cousin from my grandmothers line, so we just had to both dig deeper about this mystery.
Book on the Mclaey Family
The book was a self published document by a distant Australian relative (McLaey - Stewart) which contained information of William Sutherland, my great grandfather his job and the many relatives he had married into when he became Head Keeper at the Duke of Sutherland's Estate in the 1890's at Riddoroch in Coigach near Ullapool. It is a fascinating book that is mainly about the exploits of the Mclaeys who were Head keepers at the Duke of Sutherland's estate for several generations. The book is based on the letters released by the Dukes of Sutherland's Estate into the public domain in 1997. (sadly the year my father died) This I have to say was an amazing miracle to find, read and to discover so much information about my Great Grandfather. I have the Mackenzie Clan of Canada to thank for this who copied the book and they also turn out to be cousins to the Mclaey's, who also have Mackenzies in them. Now through one great breakthrough I found out that most of what my Great Great Uncle Donald Fraser Sutherland said was correct and not just hearsay.
To cut a long story short I still don't know much about my grandfather but I am looking into all that. I live in hope to find his grave one day. In the book it does mention a trip to Argentina was on the cards. He actually was another cowboy - cattle and sheep foreman on an Estancia's of Patagonia. On that score I did find other cousins in Argentina but not him yet.
Importance of finding out
In the meantime my search was spurred on by hearing the story from the actor Alan Cumings at his show in the Edinburgh Fringe, when he spoke about how he had looked into his family tree to find out about his grandfather, Tom Darling whom he also never knew. His story was so poignant to me because there was some similarities in the feelings we shared about not knowing such a close relative. Alan was lucky in that the BBC found his grandfather and story in the programme 'Who Do You think You Are?' This made a connection with me and I decided to continue on no matter what because as he pointed out in Edinburgh it is important to understand the past and forgive relatives for the things they did not know and could not forgive in their own time. Reference #ClubCumming Further than that he concluded that it hurt more not to know what had happened to his grandfather Tam Darling. I agree. You can see his story at this link here
I should be clear I am not related to Alan Cumming, but I find his story quite similar and there is even a parallel with my immediate father who suffered combat stress in World War Two. However at time of writing I have noted that the famous Conservationist Fraser Darling studied the Coigach island of Tanera Mor in the Summer Isles, where my grandmother was from, as you can read here
My journey found cousins in Argentina, Canada, Australia, USA, and in places in Scotland from Brora, Caithness to Ullapool and beyond. The next challenge is to meet them all and say Hello How are you Doing?' I never knew you but it's time we made the time.'
John's Grave - Where is it?
One day I hope to find John's grave. The history of the Highland clearances make this difficult and it just goes to show that the displacement of people can last centuries and effect families for the same amount of time. The light at the end of the tunnel, is that in this time of the internet, which brings people together instantaneously, genealogy is no longer the chore it once was.
Notes = Unintentional Consequnces
It does hurt that all this was deliberately hidden for so many years though this was done with good intentions for the sake of my grandmother, it had unintentional consequences for our family, left in Scotland with no sense of identity and struggling against the enforced poverty of relocating from Argentina in the depression of the 1920's. More so that the Duke of Sutherland's estate management, exerted it own penalties for the affair one of my ancestors reputedly had with the Duchess of Sutherland. The indicator of this was that in two generations between 1840 and 1860, one of the children was called Anne Hey MacKenzie (McLaey Sutherland) The consequence of this was that the original Sutherland's containing my Great Great Uncles family were cleared from Golspie Dunrobin Castle from the seat of the Duke of Sutherland to the farthest coast of Coigach to Riddoroch Deer Lodge and then at their behest forced to go to Argentina. This also explains my Great Great Uncles desperate attempts to get help from relatives in America for which he was eventually successful when he worked along the Chisum and Oregon long horn cattle trails.
I think that clears that up. About time.
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