About Us

THIS PAGE SHOWS HOW WE CAME UP WITH OUR MCVICAR FAMILY HISTORY & THE WORK THAT WAS DONE BY JASON, RODNEY, MARK, BOB & WAYNE TO GET IT ALL TOGETHER.
Our Family tree is finally here. It is the last page on the site. Jason, Mark, Rod & their Dad Bob have gathered information & pieced it all together with a lot of help from Wayne Macvicar.
Following are some letters between Rod McVicar and Wayne MacVicar. They contain a load of info on our family. Very interesting stuff. Read on....
----- Original Message -----
From: Ken McVicker
To: Rodney McVicar
Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 10:25 PM
Subject: Re: Mcvicar history
.Where or what state is Cape Breton and I am a decendant of Duncan McVicker. The tie between him and his great grandson Daniel is a little uncertain.
--- Rodney McVicar wrote:
.Hi my name Rodney McVicar and my family is currently doing a search on our family history. I am part of the Cape Breton McVicar's who I think are decentants of the four brother's who immigrated from Scotland.
.If you have any information I would greatly appreciate it .And our family is also having a family reunion this summer in cape breton and you and yours are more than welcome.
--- Rodney McVicar wrote:
.Cape Breton is an island on the north eastern tip of Nova Scotia , in eastern Canada. Was the Duncan McVicar that you are related to born in 1848? And, if he was, he would have had 3 brothers and one sister. Their names are John, Donald(my great ,great, great grandfather), Angus, and sister Rachel. All of which resided in the Cow Bay region of Cape Breton island. Did your relative Duncan have a sister named Jessica? If you want to call me feel free my home phone number is 506-x52-x866. I do have some info on the McVicars dating back to the 15th century in North Uist Scotland
I thought that you guys might want to read this.
----- Original Message -----
From: Ken McVicker
To: Rodney McVicar
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 10:48 PM
Subject: Re: Mcvicar history
.Sorry I did not reply sooner but I was away leaning a new computer program for work. My Grand father Duncan McVicker was from Glasgow Scotland and was born 1739. He Married Nancy McColum. He had a son Duncan Jr. born 1860. I have looked at records that the Mormon church have and there are about 200 Duncans from Scotland Ireland. I am sure we are related back there some where but maybe a little further than we think. I could send you a Ged file if you wanted to look at what I have. Oh, by the way, the Mormon Church has a free genealogy program that you can download. It is at www.lds.org. That will lead you to where you can down load the free program. It is called Personal Ancestral File. Most of the family research programs use the PAF file extension. I have about 1200 individuals in the file. I'll send it any way. This file is an export of my data. Good luck.
Ken McVicker
This came to Rod from Mary MacVicar and then sent to his father: From: Rodney McVicar
Sent: April 5, 2002 1:33 AM
To: bob
Subject: history
: My maiden name was Mary MacVicar, I was born in Carinish North Uist. My father is from Harris In the Western Isles. I have had a family tree done tracing the MacVicar side back to 1781. There is a temple in Carinish North Uist which was the main teaching seminary for priest in Scotland dating back to 1200. It may be of some Interest to you that there is a special part of the temple which was for the MacVicars. [Ed: Use care in replying as the email appears to have been rerouted.] "Dominic Morley" - entertainment@bigfoot.com
From: Wayne Macvicar
To: Rodney McVicar
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2002 11:41 PM
Subject: Family History
Hello Rodney:
.I came across your family website and it looks very good. It is a great way to keep in touch with your other family members. If you're wondering, I'm the one you called about a month ago regarding the family history. I had not heard from you with your family data and thought I would see if I could find your e-mail address on line and I came up with the web page. Before I send you the complete family history file I would still like to get your data to add to it and make it a more complete document. In the meantime, however, I can supply some information on your direct ancestors, in addition to what we discussed on the phone.
.The earliest known ancestor of ours I can prove is Angus MACVICAR (since there are different spellings used in our family - MacVicar, McVicar and Macvicar, I will use all capitals so as not to be too confusing), b. about 1800 in North Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Through discussions with Bill Lawson, a noted genealogist in Scotland, and some MACVICAR individuals I met in North Uist, I believe he originated in the northern part of the island in the Vallay or Sollas area. There are indications that before this the family may have been in the Knockline area on the west side of the island. Through Scottish family naming traditions, I believe his father's name was John. One of the MACVICAR individuals I met in North Uist, Neil MACVICAR, gave me his patronymic (paternal lineage) back to a John the Red (Ian Ruadh) who came from that part of North Uist. It is believed John was moved in 1814 to the southern part of the island to a place called Grimsay where Neil lived. John the Red's son Donald lived on the island of Baleshare, also in the south. A John MACVICAR appears in the 1814 Rent Roll in Grimsay. An Angus MACVICAR appears in the 1828 and 1833 rent rolls in what is called the Cairinish Moss Crofts, just east of the island of Baleshare and south of Grimsay. The moss crofts were the poorest crofts and could not properly sustain a family. Angus was married about 1830 to Euphemia (Effie) MACQUEEN, possibly the daughter of Donald MACQUEEN. Two children were born in North Uist, John in 1831 and Rachael in 1832.
.Emigration from North Uist to Cape Breton began in 1828 when several families were given assistance in passage by a local doctor who could see that with the state of the land and poor sales from kelp, the people would continually go into debt to the landlord, Macdonald of Sleat. Some MACVICAR families left in 1828 and continued until 1842 going to Cape Breton, after which they went to Ontario and Australia, due to a famine in Cape Breton. Angus and his family left in 1835. The MACVICAR families came either to Loch Lomond in Richmond County or Catalone/Mira area in Cape Breton County. At least 12 different MACVICAR families came to Cape Breton, at least unrelated as far as is known but some research has been done to indicate some of them had connections. It is not known where Angus first settled in Cape Breton. His first child born in Cape Breton, Donald (your ancestor), stated on his marriage license he was born along the Mira River in 1837. It is known that they moved to Loch Lomond in 1842 where the last two children, Angus and Duncan, were born in 1844 and 1847. Angus acquired the property in Loch Lomond by squatting and in 1863 he sold it when he moved to Cow Bay Back Lands in Cape Breton County.
.The reasons for his move to Cape Breton County are not known but it could have been he wanted to be closer to other family members. It could also have been something to do with his church as there was some dissension in the Presbyterian Church at this time, even outside Scotland. What the family connections were is not known for sure but has been a subject of debate for some time with other researchers. It appears there was a connection to the Catalone MACVICAR family and the MACQUEEN family. Angus MACQUEEN emigrated from North UIST and settled in the Cow Bay Back Lands. He was married to Flora MACVICAR and was possibly a brother of Effie. A known brother of Angus MACQUEEN, Rory 'Pomona' MACQUEEN lived in Cow Bay (later Port Morien). He was married to Isabel MACVICAR, a member of the Catalone MACVICAR family. It is thought that Flora was a sister of Isabel or possibly Angus and maybe that Isabel was their aunt! This is very confusing and I think I will leave it there!
You will find the McVicar family history on the last page of this site.
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