www.clanlivingstone.info

Dear Friends and Family, I hope I'm not 'spamming' the Forum here, but I've been working through a backlog of records I've been compiling, and have also been working to put them up on my McLea genealogy blog (which has a focus on my own family but may from time to time include items of interest to others as well).

Certainly there are numerous spelling variations and name changes over the centuries among the Scots, but a jump from MacLea to MacLean it is a bit of a stretch for me. I suspect these folks might be wrong Kyle. Though the two names today look and sound somewhat alike in this form, in times past in Argyll, there was older gaelic spelling that was quite different from MacLea as is the origin of the name. It is my understanding that MacLean is derived from the Gaelic MacGille Eion or servant of St. John. My ancestor Miles Livingston travelled to British North America in 1812 on a ship full of McLeans from Mull. Fortunately for Miles the McLeans brought a piper with them for the long voyage.

Dear Donald I don't think anyone disagrees that these two surnames were very distinct in Argyll. But it appears that in Glasgow and other lowland places the confusion could be made somehow. Regards Andrew

As Andrew said, I agree with you that it seems strange to have had the mistake made in the Highlands and Islands, but I have personal evidence of the McLea-->McLean mistake both in Glasgow and in America and in my own life in America many, many times, given the ubiquity of the name McLean these days.

Someone could have added an n I guess over the years and it became McLean. As I said the two names could be mistaken. I can see that happening. But listen guys something even stranger is that the original Lismore Parish records recorded bewtween 1758 and 1772 spell the family name Livingston. Then in the 1772 entries we see start to see Livingstone as it is spelt on the Island and elsewhere today. Ok maybe the first transcriber was a bad speller like me, or did he consistently and deliberately spell our clan name Livingston during the early years after the widespread change of the MacLea name on the Island of Lismore and the neighbouring areas. NOw remember these are several different Livingstons he is recording over that period and surely one of them would have noticed that there family name is not being spelled correctly if it were Livingstone from day one. Maybe some could not read or write, but I dont believe that is the case. In any event 12 years is a long time to make a mistake without anyone noticing the clan name is being mispelled. So I thought maybe in 1772 there was another transcriber and he was a better speller and that is why it shows up in 1772 and thereafter as Livingstone in the Lismore Baptismal Records. Or did the Clan Chief add the e on the end in 1771 or 1772? I guess it like who came first the chicken or the egg. It is possible at all that were MacLea Livingstons before we were MacLea Livngstones. That is someone deciding in 1771 or 1772 that we needed the e to as the theory goes to differentiate ourselves from our Livingston friends to the south. Those folks in the lowlands were Livingtons weren't they? Unfortunately I don't have a photocopy of the orignal baptismal records to show you an example and you won't see Livingston from 1759 to 1771 in the recently copied Lismore records. regards Donald

Hi Donald One influence on the spelling of the name was obviously the spelling of the city, which was normally Livingston. Apart from that spelling varied a lot, to the point that I would say it was very exceptional if there were only two spellings used in Lismore, and therefore maybe this really was the result of a concerted effort as you seem to be implying. In the parish of Forfar, in Angus, whoever did the local registrations seems to have had standardising effect like the one you mention, because the families that stayed there into the later 19th century, when people were starting to spell for themselves, eventually kept their non-standard spelling of Leviston (which was once common but sporadic all over Scotland in registers), while incoming Livingstons used more standardised spellings. It appears that Leviston was originally a pronunciation based spelling in most parts of Scotland (and Ireland) but in Forfar, funnily enough, it seems this surname was pronounced Levitch in the 18th century! Best Regards Andrew

Donald McLean in the DNA project has traced his line back to MacLays. The spelling change happened in Dunfermline (in the lowland). Best Regards Andrew

Hi Andrew, In Argyll after the name change I have seen mainly Livingston or Livingstone that is to say in the baptismal, marriage,cemetery and census records. Sometimes in North America I have seen our name spelt Levingston. Oddly enough I a related on my Mom's side of the family to a William Levingston of New York State, a great-great-great-great grandfather who may be of a lowland Livingston family. In the lowlands family, I have seen Levingston and some of the other variations you have mentioned in your research of the area. Now to put some holes in my argument some of other parish books in Argyll that date before 1772 use the Livingstone spelling, but it may be that some of those books may be copies of copies. Say 19th century copies of an 18th century register book. In any event the fact remains that for from the time of first entries to 1771 the name was recorded in the baptismal records as Livingston. Then all of sudden in 1772 it was Livingstone apparently recorded by the same cleric. Indeed I may turn out to be wrong about this, but correct in one sense that after the MacLea chief pushed for a wide scale name change to Livingston sometime in the 1750's,it was later decided to add an e for reasons that have already been discussed over the years by Niall, Robert and others. So whether I am not entirely correct on this it might still be worth discussing on the forum and getting feedback from folks on when tney think we added the e to Livingstone. Now it may be that we went directly from Maconlea or MacLea to Livingstone or was it MacLea to Livingston to Livingstone. I think its interesting as I said before that in the old Lismore Livingston baptisms from 1759 to 1771 are recorded as Livingston and from 1772 on are recorded as Livingstone. I am just letting the clan know about it and they can make of it what they will. regards Donald

Hi Andrew, Well I guess he is a MacLea with the name McLean then. As I said before in this name game anything is possible. To further confuse things many people were adopted into more powerfull clans. I would not like to try and identify who was a Campbell for instance and who was not. Very difficult process I would imagine. I may be infact a decendant of a Mull or Movern McLean One researcher contacted me on this forum telling me that he had heard that my great-great-great grandfather Miles Livingstone married a Janet McLean. His marriage entry only refers to her as Janet Livingston, so I dont know whether Miles married a cousin from Morvern or the person at the Presbyterian church at Bowmore on the Isle of Islay was in hurry and didnt get her last name. I know that Miles travelled to British North America in Hudson Bay Company vessel full of McLeans that all originated from Mull. It may be that the schooner stopped at Tobermory in Mull first to pick up the McLeans then went to the port of Bowmore where Miles met his McLean wife and married her before the schooner met up with Hudsons Bay vessel at the port of Sligo Ireland that was to take Miles and other highlanders to British North America. Anyways I wont worry to much about whether Miles wife was a Livingstone or a McLean. Both good Argyll families

Hi Kyle, It is great that you have tracked down these old records. Certainly not easy to find new sources of old MacLea or Livingstone records. They are few and far between I am afraid. I mean't to tell you that I did recently locate a Dunislea Mconlea from 1656 that lived I believe on the Island of Colonsay. I have to check with the source person from Colonsay whether he indeed located that record from Colonsay, but I believe he probably did. I alway like locating a Maconlea record from the 1600's and especially when the name Dunislea appears. Sounds just a bit like our ancient gaelic name Dhunnsliebhe doesnt it. I am hoping that the folks at Colonsay have some old Maconlea-Maclea-Livingstone records to share with the MacLea Livingstone forum. regards Donald