GLENISLA --PHOTOS OF McKENZIE FAMILY LOCATIONS

I had the opportunity to go on trip to Scotland and Wales with my mother in 2001.   I arranged to break away from our tour group and go by train to Dundee and then by car to visit Glenisla and Lintrathen.  I was blessed that a genealogist I met online agreed to pick us up and drive us around the glen.  I will always be grateful to him and his wife. 

My Glenisla connection begins with my paternal great-grandmother, Margaret Anderson.  Margaret was the daughter of Catherine McKenzie and Alexander Anderson.   These are some photos that might be of interest to McKenzie Clan and Kin.  If others have photos of the area you would like to share, please send them to me and I will happily post them.


Below is East Derry in Glenisla Parish. 
Catherine McKenzie and her husband, Alexander Anderson, and their family are listed as living at East Derry from the birth of their son, George in 1837 through the death of their 2 daughters in 1847 in the parish records.  Some of the family was there in both the 1841 and 1851 census. 

In 1841, Alexander Anderson is listed as a 25 year old shoemaker.  His wife, Catherine, and children George, 3, and Janet, 2, were enumerated at Gables, where Catherine's parents were living.  

Also, living at East Derry in 1841 was James and Janet Downie, who appear to be Catherine's aunt and uncle---her mother Margaret Downie McKenzie's siblings.  There are several other people also living at East Derry in the census:  Alexander Mitchill (65), with Betsey Brody (age 40) and James (7), Katherine(5), and Elizabeth (5).  Also, was the Campbell family: Alexander (53) and Helen (52).  I don't know if they all lived in the same house or if there were other dwellings on the property.  I'm not sure how all of them are connected.

In the 1851 census, Alexander Anderson, a 39 year-old shoemaker, and their children, Alexander and Margaret, were listed at East Derry.   Andrew Mitchell, now a 72 year old tailor, is still living there along with son-in-law James Brodie, a 46 year-old agriculture laborer and daughter, Betsy Brodie, age 50, and daughters, Catherine and Elisabeth, both 15 year old farm labourers.  John and Janet Dick are also living there with 5 children and her mother,  Marjory Edward, along with 2 visitors 32 year-old Thomas Joyce and 40 year-old Taddy Lydon, age 40. Both were agriculture labourers from Ireland.  Siblings Elizabeth McKenzie, 21 year-old hand loom weaver (cotton) and brother Robert McKenzie, age 11, scholar are also enumerated there.  I don't yet know the connection to our McKenzie line.  Also, listed as living at East Derry are the family of Andrew (30, Ag lab) and Barbara (28) Webster and 4 children.  George, (79, Ag lab) and wife, Margaret, (61)  White are also there.  

In 1851, Catherine, 34, is listed with her daughter Elizabeth, 3 months, as a visitor in the home of Thomas and Margaret Ogilvy.  Her occupation is listed as weaver(cotton) H.L. (hand loom).  Their son, George, is thought to be listed as a 12 year-old farmservant, is listed in the residence of John and Janet McNicoll. Our George would have actually been 13 at the time.  It is unclear why they weren't at East Derry with Alexander and the rest of the family.

Isabella Mitchell, Archibald McKenzie’s wife, was also living at East Derry  before their marriage when she had a child, Ann Simson McGregor, by James McGregor.  Perhaps Isabella and Archibald came to know each other through Catherine.

Notice the original roof line on East Derry as seen on this side wall where it is darker. My tour-guide, who was from Scotland and familiar with older buildings, pointed it out to me and said originally the home would have had the lower roof and ceiling.  He also noted that the back room was an addition.  The main house was about 20 feet by 30 feet. It stands only about 18 to 24 inches from the road.   

When Catherine’s son, George Anderson, was baptized parish records record the family was residing at East Derry.


(Mother’s) life, at least up to the time she arrived in Utah, has been hard and trying. During her recent visit, among other things she told me, the winter that followed my birth (25 September 1837)  was a very cold one and that in the hut where she lived it was so cold that if a drop of milk or water fell onto a chair or the floor, it would immediately freeze.


Life must have been hard for the family because in the 1851 census, when George was only 13 he was living as a worker with another family as noted above. In fact, he recorded:


From the force of circumstances, Mother and I have been separated most of the time since I was 4 or 5 years old. And when, on the 15th of September 1868, she arrived in Salt Lake City from Scotland, we were almost strangers.


Then quoting from his journal, he wrote after their reunion:


My brief acquaintance with Mother has impressed me favorably. She certainly was a good hearted woman and meant to do the best she knew. She also manifest great pleasure in seeing her children and others persue (sic) the proper course.


Catherine’s daughter, Margaret Anderson’s history also gives a glimpse of how difficult life would have been in Scotland. Her son, Hyrum, wrote of Margaret’s life:


Her parents (Catherine McKenzie and  Alexander Anderson) were poor as most of the common people were. As a little girl she used to go with older members of the family gleaning the wheat fields, picking up potatoes, and any farm work that could be had. When she was ten years old she worked every day right along with the grown women from the first streak of daylight until it got so dark they couldn’t see to work, for a few cents a day and boarded themselves such as it was. Many times she had a dry crust of bread and maybe the landlord would give her a small carrot or a raw potato to eat with it, when they were given a few minutes for dinner. (History written in 1938.)


Below is the view of the Isla River from East Derry. The Statistical Report of Scotland from 1834 to 1845, about the time the family lived there, lists the Isla as averaging 47 feet across and about 18 inches deep. (http://stat-acc-scot.edina.ac.uk/link/1834-45/Forfar/Glenisla/11/423/ )

Catherine’s son, George, recorded:


A portion of the time (Mother) had to gather sticks for (fuel), which she had to carry a long way on her back, having to wade the river, Ila, to obtain them. She also had to take me and my sister Jannett with her, and since it was impossible for her to carry us two and the sticks at once, she would carry us a distance ahead, then return for the sticks. When she came back to us, if she found me in a “good tune”, she would pass on with the sticks a short distance, then return for us.


Can you image leaving a toddler and a baby near the banks of this river this wide while you carried the wood across?  How cold it must have been! 


The farm in the background from this view is Brae of Blackdykes, where Catherine was born in 1816 to Margaret Downy and James McKenzie.  Her grandfather, John McKenzie, lived there with his second wife, Christian Gordon, at the birth of children Isobel in 1804 and Elizabeth in 1807.   We were unable to get closer on my visit because of hoof and mouth disease restrictions in place at the time.  I would loved to have seen a closer view of the place.

This is a view (above) looking back toward East Derry, which is the small white house in the background. I believe in the foreground is Brae of Blackdykes. This gives you a feeling for the surrounding area. This area has fewer trees than some parts of Scotland

This is the worker’s cottage at a farm called Formal. James McKenzie and his family were living on this farm in 1825 when his son Archibald was born. Catherine would have been 9 that year.


My guide had me notice that there are three chimneys. This would probably indicate that originally there were three separate homes in this structure. You can see the darker bricks in the middle where there might have been an additional door


I used to have a picture of the main house at Formal that was sent to me by a researcher in Scotland, but it appears that I lost it in our last computer crash.  It is a beautiful stately home.

As you move up the glen, the land becomes more rocky. You can see why the Scots build so many buildings and walls out of rock. Sheep were well adapted to survive in this rocky area. It must have been hard to farm, though!

This photo shows the Isla River and looks up the glen. The first records of the McKenzie family are in the mid 1700s. They are living up the glen, but slowly over time they move down the glen towards Glenisla and then towards Lintrathen. After Catherine and Isabella left for Utah, Archibald, the only child left in the family of James and Margaret Downy McKenzie we can trace, left the area and moved to Dundee and the industrial jobs in that area.  I have not been able to trace their fourth child, John, after the 1841 census.

This is Delnamer, far up the glen of the Isla river. The river runs behind the house. In some of the earliest parish records of the McKenzie family, they are living at Dallingmer or Dalnamer, which I believe is this farm. The two legs of this U-shaped house were originally homes and the center portion was originally the barn for the animals, according to those who live there.

John McKenzie was the son of John McKenzie and Christian Culbert.  The family was living at Dallingmar when John was christenened on 19 October 1766 in the Glenisla Parish church.


I had a neat experience when we visited here. We had been driving for some time trying to find a place called Dallingmar/Dalnamer/Delnamar, where John McKenzie was born in 1766. We drove past it once and then, as we came back on it, we saw the sign on the side of the house, Delnamer. (You can see it on the wall beside the vehicle.)


I got out of the car and took a couple of pictures. There was a man talking to someone in a car nearby (we were out in the middle of no where) the man called out to see if he could help me. I went over and told him my ancestors had lived there in the mid 1700s and asked if it was okay if I took a couple of pictures. I asked what was the oldest part of the place. The man in the car said through the window that the oldest place was in ruin just beyond his house...about 50 or 75 feet up. I asked him if I could see it. He got out of his car and we walked there.

In the brush was the rock remains of an old home...about 10 by 20 feet. One corner in particular was very square and clear still, even though there was a tree with about a 4 inch diameter growing inside the former home!  The stone over the door or fireplace was still there. It was so neat to see it all.  As we walked to the car, he asked me why I was interested in genealogy.  I told him it was my hobby, but then added that my church encouraged me to seek out my family. He put his left arm around my shoulder and put out his right hand to shake mine. His eye filled with tears and he said, “I’m Brother Johnson!”  Surprisingly, the only latter-day saint family living in the glen lived at Delnamar.  It was interesting to think that my ancestors were some of the first who accepted the gospel there nearly 150 years ago.  

This is the far corner of the wall inside the house. Look how tight the rock wall still is after all these years. It is about 3 feet high. It is amazing to think that this portion of the stone home has existed for over 250 years and that perhaps this is the place where my 4 and 5 great-grandfathers lived!

I wish I had been able to visit more places, such as Longdrum, where James McKenzie was born in 1793 to John McKenzie and Margaret Findlay.  His half-brother, David (1795), son of John McKenzie and his second wife, Christian Gordon, was also born there.

I wish I could have seen Pitewan, where Isabella McKenzie was born to James McKenzie and Margaret Downy.

It would have been neat to see Gables and Middleton, where James and Margaret Downie McKenzie lived in their later years. 

But I am grateful to have seen these spots.  I felt like I was standing on hallowed ground for I know because of the sacrifices of my ancestors I am blessed today.  They had such challenging lives and they left me a heritage I am very grateful to claim.