Too Quiet in Here

A Read-only Archive of the old forum. Many useful messages and lots of family data!
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D.W.Livingston
Posts: 95
Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:08 pm
Location: Tucson, Arizona, United States

Too Quiet in Here

Post by D.W.Livingston »

Hello Everyone, I hope everyone is having a good June. I come here every day and see that no new threads have been added, and there is not a lot of conversations going on in the forum. So I pose a few questions to everyone to try and get people talking a little. 1.) How many members do we have signed up to this forum?... Just a rough estimate, no need for exact numbers. This is most likely something only Niall can give us. Just personal curiousity and doesn't play into anything else in this thread. :) 2.) What brought you to the Clan McLea/Livingstone Forum? 3.) Where are you currently in that "quest" (from question #2)? For my answers, to start it off. Multiple things brought me here. 1.) When I joined I knew little of my Clan history, or personal history. I just knew my Grandfather/Grandmother forward. I had no real ties to Scotland or knowledge of my place in lowland/highland clan. So I searched for a Clan website for Livingston and found this site. I found the knowledgable members helpful and enjoyed reading the threads to get a feel for everyone in general. 2.) I also came looking for assistance in finding genealogical information. I thought that a site where all Livingston(e) and McLea/Maclea/MacOnlea could meet I might find someone who has a connection with someone in my family line and make a connection that way. To that end... I currently check into this website daily for any new threads or interesting conversation. As most know I will add my thoughts to almost any discussion, even if it is to add questions. I have really gotten into the history of Scotland but I still try to focus on the genealogical aspects. When I find a new family member in locations like Stirling, Crieff, Dull, I try to find information about that location in that time frame. I go to book stores and look for Scotland Historical books and look in the index for Livingstone or McLea (MacLea/MacOnlea)... I don't find many right off. I also currently have the Scotlands People searches in an excel Sheet to help further our genealogical search and trying to connect members with other direct line. I have been able to get back to a John Livingstone in Dull Parish, Perth back in the 1780's. I am fascinated because it would have been roughly this time that the name change and location changes would have been happening (see http://www.clanmclea.co.uk/Family_Tree.htm) So even though I have gotten back an impressive 225 years, this to me is just when it starts to get interesting. I am now moving on to add the other sites search results in to get the clan members who have migrated to Australia/New Zealand, or Canada/US/South America. I can see us all as one huge family and if we go back far enough we will find those ties. I also see a centralized database for members of this site to enter their personal family information and check against to see if anyone else has that same person to build off of. So what do you think? Want to tell us what brought you here? :) David
David Wyse Livingston
Tucson, Arizona, United States
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Bachuil
Posts: 91
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2009 8:56 am

Too Quiet in Here

Post by Bachuil »

I have just checked the email forum list and there are about 200 users.
The Baron of Bachuil,
Coarb of St Moluag
Chief of MacLea
Kyle2 MacLea

Too Quiet in Here

Post by Kyle2 MacLea »

Agreed, David! Usually, I check in everyday too!
Keith Livingstone Australia
Posts: 0
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 11:16 pm

Too Quiet in Here

Post by Keith Livingstone Australia »

Keith here. I check in about twice a week, and have been doing so since about 2000. I only knew of my grandfather who was in the Argyll and Sutherland highlanders 1st 6th as a platoon sergeant in WW1 and had his leg blown off for his troubles... and now thanks to the site and a lot of googling, etc, I have got as far back as Angus Livingston, m Margaret McPhail, son John b. 1806, and a definite highland ancestry.
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D.W.Livingston
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Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:08 pm
Location: Tucson, Arizona, United States

Too Quiet in Here

Post by D.W.Livingston »

Hello Keith, Was Angus and Margaret from Kilbrandon and Kilchattan/ARGYLL? I only ask because I see an entry, when I sorted by LIVINGSTON, Angus and Mothers Maiden name. It is: Birth: 14/01/1806
David Wyse Livingston
Tucson, Arizona, United States
Keith Livingstone Australia
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Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 11:16 pm

Too Quiet in Here

Post by Keith Livingstone Australia »

I'll have to go back to my notes, on another computer at home. However, from memory, John was the first born of eight, and his birthday was recorded as Feb 7 1806 (may have been 1805). He did have a much younger sister Anne who was born around 1821. I have posted some of this elsewhere on the site in some detail, so will go have a scout around and come back with a link
Andrew Lancaster4
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Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 8:34 am

Too Quiet in Here

Post by Andrew Lancaster4 »

Hi David I got involved because my maternal grandmother's family has a strong family legend of connections to the clan. When I took up genealogy it was one of the first things I tried to check, but the more I found the more I realized there was very little solid evidence that anyone had. Indeed our lot had a very odd name variant which looked more English than Scottish, and they had lived in Dundee, which is not exactly the highlands. For more information see http://users.skynet.be/lancaster/Livingstone.htm. In desperation I decided to try the new tool of "genetic genealogy" and got in contact with Rob Livingston. I sponsored a very distant relative in, who it took some time to track down. The tests were probably as good as I could hope for because they showed a very strong match to Craig's MacClays, making my DNA family one of the only ones with strong evidence of using both a MacLea type surname and a Livingston type surname. I got fairly interested in that DNA match and made contact with a lot of people, and learned a lot. I eventually was asked to take over administering the DNA project when Rob became too ill. Over the last few months we have not had many new DNA test results, and I was also noticing the low traffic on the DNA discussion forum. We have a great "hard core" of people who've now studied their DNA as far as possible unless we get more people to compare to, so I'm wondering - and hopefully I am not alone - about how to recruit more people. Best Regards Andrew
Canadian Livingstone
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Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:00 pm

Too Quiet in Here

Post by Canadian Livingstone »

Hi Andrew, I am sorry to hear that things are quiet in the DNA forum, but to be fair I have tried to move a major Livingstone DNA project your way in recent months. regards Donald
Canadian Livingstone
Posts: 2780
Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:00 pm

Too Quiet in Here

Post by Canadian Livingstone »

Hi All, Regarding David's guestion, I came to the forum wanting to know about the highland Livingstone clan's origins and the history of Livingtones who lived on the Isle of Lismore, Appin and neighbouring Movern area where my ancestors and their kin originated. I was quite intrigued by the history and folklore of our "tribe" that could be found on the Maclea Livingstone site. In the early days of the forum, my main contact was David and Niall who provided much insight into the origins of our clan. Their time and efforts were greatly appreciated as was the efforts of many others on the forum. Much has been learned and different theories have been discussed and debated over the last few years. All and all it has been an interesting experience. regards Donald
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