ROOTS - RESEARCH
McDONELL, Antigonish County, Nova Scotia
After some modest successes with other family roots, we attempted to do the same with a branch for our elusive McDonell surname. Son Vince and I spent many hours searching for information on the person who, by family tradition,was the progenitor of the family McDonell. That enigmatic person signed his name 'Angus McDonell'
Just this month, January 2002, a photo that had been rattling around in our huge collection for years caught my eye. It is a studio photograph similar in cultural style to the one of Angus (above). Since it came from the same relative (Cathryn Virginia McDonell) who had preserved it along with that of Angus, I have reason to believe that this is a photo of the wife of Angus - Mary Fraser!
He lived most of his life in Fraser's Mills, Antigonish County, Nova Scotia, Canada
Tradition had held that Angus was a cabin boy who deserted or worked his way across from Scotland. Thanks to "Drummer on Foot", we now know that this story was a fabrication. Angus was actually born in Frasers Mills, Antigonish County, c 1823; the son of Donald McDonell - the Pioneering Settler in Frasers Mills - emigrated to Nova Scotia in 1814 from Morar, Inverness County, Scotland. According to the map in Fr. MacGillivray's "History of Antigonish", pg 84, Donald (More) McDonald was Granted 256 Acres per Book O Page 14a of the old records (Old No. 1544)
This image of Angus, son of Donald, is a copy of an original taken at NEW GLASGOW, PICTOU COUNTY - adjacent West of Antigonish and about 45 miles northwest of Frasers Mills. about 1900. It was autographed for his son Alexander's new wife, Laura Randall, who was from Nebraska (Alder Grove, Burt County.) After only 2 years (and 2 new children), Alexander was selling his 400 acre farm (formerly the McKinnon Place next to St. Andrews Parish Church) and moving to Spokane, Washington. Angus was 93 when this parting took place. (He died in 1915.)
In his 1914 farewell message to her:
"When this You See
Remember me.
Though Many a Mile
we distant be.
Though Separated in
in Person we Are.
Never Absent from
My thoughts"
Angus McDonell
To
Daughter Laura
written on the reverse of the original print, he signed his name Angus McDonell, the spelling of choice for us and confirmed in 1977 from his grave marker in a Cemetery on the East side of the South River, in Antigonish County at a place once known as McPherson - about midway between St Andrews Church and Frasers Mills. ("Drummer" used McPherson P.O. as his return address.)
In what was an extended family plot, much of it overrun by dense bushes, we noted familiar names that we photographed and copied into a notebook. These surnames (McDonell, McDonnell, MacDonell, McIsaac, MacLean, MacGillivray, etc) were linked together to form a map of the extended family. We had already managed to develop some familiarity through 1976 correspondence with the pastor of St. Andrews Parish, B. Chisolm. By photograph and notes, we assembled a brief family. tree, The good pastor had already sent us copies of the 1856 wedding certificate of Angus 'McDonnell' (sic), to Mary Fraser. We also had received a copy of Mary Fraser's baptism certificate. That event was recorded on February 16, 1836 on the second page of the parish records; which we were allowed to inspect in 1977. Mary's fate is a mystery but she may be buried next to Angus. Or in Pictou/New Glasgow; where the couple may have lived for a time.
While in Nova Scotia in 1977, we had purchased a copy of the two volume "History of Antigonish County"; which had been published in 1976. Therein lay voluminous information about families in the County as they had been known around 1850. We lacked the keys that would translate the names into relevant data. At issue and confusing to us was the spelling of our family surname. In the McPherson Cemetery, the spelling was either McDonell (Angus) or MacDonell (his son William) or McDonnell (Angus' daughter Margaret). We theorized, wrongly, that the stone cutter had been misinformed. It is now known that all three are forms of the same surname; individual preferences concur with where these people lived.
In 1998, we discovered the transcription, by George N. McInnis, of the 1891 Census of Antigonish County. There, Angus answered the questions of the official visitor. There was no mention of his wife, Mary Fraser McDonell (Who, logically, might have died before the Census data) but we did obtain information about a previously unknown daughter of Angus and Mary called Annie (Who later married D.R. McDonald of Antigonish Town), Also at home that day was my Grandfather Alexander, my great uncle William and great-aunt Margaret. They constituted family number 103 in the village of Fraser's Mills. We had found Angus but we still did not know where he was born.
An exciting breakthrough occurred in 1999. In December, 2000 I posted a message at the ROOTSWEB site requesting information on Angus and Mary. A kind soul E-mailed me with the notice of the D. MacFarlane / R.A. MacLean publication of the day notes of "Drummer on Foot". The latter was a salesman (a Cameron) who went from door to door (On foot) as old time Drummers did. Interested in preserving some local history, he knocked on doors and interviewed the "old people" who would talk to him. On the first page of the narrative, "Drummer" described his June 12, 1913 visit to the farm of Alexander Fraser, miller and father of our Mary Fraser McDonell. On page ten is Drummer's account of his July 3, 1913 visit to Frasers Mills (Upper South River) and his interview with Angus McDonell! "Drummer" prepared a lengthy and respectful sketch and published it in "The Casket"; which was the Parish Paper published in Antigonish Town - archives probably kept in the Library of St Francis Xavier College, same town.
This incredible event was reported to me as if it had happened last week! Angus was 91 at the time of the interview. In it, Angus recalled the names of his siblings, parents and grandparents and where they all came from.Nearly everything Angus reported to "Drummer" had been forgotten or lost by those of us in the states. His father, Donald (more) McDonell was the pioneer settler of Fraser's Mills.Donald (More) McDonell emigrated to Antigonish County from Morar, Scotland in 1814. He married Catherine Gillis of Cape George, a settlement northeast of Antigonish.
In 1977, we drove from Long Beach, CA to Frasers Mills (more properly, "Upper South River"). Pausing at a bridge, we climbed out of the car and mulled our situation. We were weeks from home and would probably be late getting Marilyn back to work. We decided to turn back to St. Andrews - stumbling over the McFarlane Cemetery on the way. We had unknowingly missed the Ancestral McDonell farm (Grant is in Book O, Pg 14a Old #1544,) 256 Acres, just over the bridge to our right, by a few yards! While we had been deciding what to do next, we had been parked at the edge of the Ancestral Fraser farm! There is nothing like being prepared!
In a lot less time this year, I had obtained the family link to the old world! From the very mouth of Angus McDonell - Thanks to "Drummer on Foot" (Pg 10), "History of Antigonish" (Pg 109) and numerous issues of "The Casket".
Revised: Sunday, January 27, 2002