some pics from the Highland Games in USA NC July

[LoE]

With regard to people in kilt attire, I have to say I was quite amazed by the number of spectators, including teenaged boys and girls, who were wandering the grounds at the Glengarry Highland Games in Eastern Ontario last weekend. It hit me as soon as we walked through the gates. I don't know if that is a "post-Covid" reality, as this was my first time at these games, but there were enough young men in kilts to stand out. Granted they were the normal acrylic fare from Pakistan, but I give any teen full marks for wearing a kilt. And there were numerous young ladies in billie kilts.

Just my 2bits.

Glengarry Highland Games! Funny you would mention that. That's in Maxville, right? Those were my ancestors that settled that town. Though they called it "Lochiel" when it became a township. Initially. It changed names over the years.

After doing research, I found that my ancestors migrated from Glenelg, Scotland to Maxville in 1793.

40 families (on one ship) tried to cross the Atlantic from Glenelg during the Highland Clearances. The leader of those 40 families was Alexander MacLeod. The war with Napoleon made them turn back on the first attempt (ran into military threat from other ships). But the next year they tried again, and made it.

If you travel from Maxville to MacLeod Rd (4 miles), you'll be at the family farm my ancestor settled. They still own it. Some later generations emigrated to the USA, which is where I am.

You were 4 miles from my direct ancestor's farm.

[LoE]

Roderick Roy Rory "Rouag" MacLeod, my great-great-great-great-great grandfather.

I'm not sure I have the correct number of "greats" - I'd have to look it up again. But he's one of the Scots that made the trip from Glenelg to Maxville in 1793/1794.

Which gave us the Glengarry Highland Games.

B:1771 Glenelg, Inverness-shire, Scotland
D:Abt. 1849 Canada

[LoE]

https://stcolumbakirkhill.ca/about/

Lochiel Township took its name from the many Cameron families who settled there. The first organized settlement was in 1794. That was when the Glenelg party arrived in the present Kirk Hill district to hew out homes from the bush.

The Glenelg party had a very adventurous journey. They were mainly MacLeods, MacGillivrays, Macintoshes, MacCuaigs and McLennans — 40 families in all — and in early April 1793, they left Greenock, Scotland in a ship which was chartered by Captain Alexander MacLeod of the family of Moale. As Great Britain was then at war with France, Captain MacLeod armed his ship with cannon and provided muskets and broadswords for his able bodied men.

Finally, after a tedious voyage of 18 weeks, they arrived at St. John’s Island now called Prince Edward Island on October 18th, 1793, with a foot of ice on their decks.

Early in April, the following year, Alexander MacLeod and Big Norman MacLeod engaged two French schooners at St. Mary’s Bay, in which the devoted undismayed and unfaltering emigrants made their way through the ice that filled the river to Montreal.

From thence they came up the river to Lancaster in bateau, portaging and carrying their effects on their backs past the numerous rapids on the route. A few of them including John Ban MacLennan and Alex MacLeod, settled in the front of Lancaster, but the majority of the party took up land in the vicinity of Kirk Hill in Lochiel Township. For many years the settlement was known as Glenelg, in memory of their old home and the present name, Kirk Hill, was given after the building of the Kirk in 1820. In May 1796, 18 other families came out of Glenelg and settled in the 6th and 7th Concessions of Lochiel.

[OC Richard]

That's really cool!

I have a similar thing, but in West Virginia, and on a much smaller scale, only two families.

They were the first European settlers, arriving in the late 18th century, and their descendants are still thick as hops in that region. I'm directly descended from both families, which been intermarrying there for over two centuries.

[LoE]

That's really cool!

I have a similar thing, but in West Virginia, and on a much smaller scale, only two families.

They were the first European settlers, arriving in the late 18th century, and their descendants are still thick as hops in that region. I'm directly descended from both families, which been intermarrying there for over two centuries.

Which two families OC Richard?

[OC Richard]

Which two families OC Richard?

They were the families of Captain Ralph Stewart, from Perthshire, and John Cooke, from London (his wife was Scottish-born).

Legend is that the Cookes were from Arran but who can say.

In the 1760s they came to the Shenandoah Valley and set up farms. They served together in the Virginia Militia both before and during the Revolutionary War.

In the 1790s the Cooke family moved to the Upper Guyandotte, the first European settlers in that part of Appalachia, followed around 1800 by the Stewart family, the second settlers. Happily the Cookes had several boys and the Stewarts several girls.

The third family, arriving just after 1800, named MacDonald, was shunned by the Stewarts and Cooks from the get-go, and when the Civil War came the Stewarts and Cooks (all Union soldiers) ran the MacDonalds (who were slave-owning Confederates) out of the region.

John Cooke 1754-1832



His son William Cook, who as you see married the daughter of John's longtime friend Ralph Stewart

[LoE]

Fascinating history.

[Iain Ruaidh]

One of my ancestors, Gilbert Woollam of the Nantwich, Cheshire Quaker Meeting, along with all the elders of the meeting, signed a letter of introduction around 1660 that was sent off with folks to America.
I don't know their names or where they settled.

[LoE]

OC Richard.

I don't know if you ever attend the Highland Games "Grandfather Mountain Highland Games" in North Carolina, USA. They happen once a year, every summer. But if you do, I'd like to know about it so I could meet you in person. That goes for Mr. Sinclair as well, as I know he attends. Though I have yet to meet either of you in person. I look forward to it.

We do indeed have similar family histories.

I will be there in 2023.

[tripleblessed]

I have the joy of being a volunteer on the grounds committee for the Stone Mountain Highland games, just outside of Atlanta. This will be our 50th, the third weekend in October each year,
the 15th and 16th this year. http://www.smhg.org/index.php

It is one of the larger games on this continent, generally in the neighborhood of 50,000 visitors. Attire ranges from what folk wear shopping to the MacGregor in full tartan kilt suit to me in a kilt and t-shirt to proper kilt attire to kilted stormtroopers a la Star Wars to guys in utility kilts and sneakers with a claymore strapped on.......etc. Highland athletics, Highland dance, country dancing, fiddles, pipe bands, sheepdogs, Scottish musicians, themed marketplace, food and potables. And being a U.S. games, more than a hundred clan and society tents. Exhibitors who've come from Scotland and Ireland to be with us (and make money). All welcome, smiles everywhere. Not what you'd see in Scotland or Canada, but well organized and run. Beautiful grounds of Stone Mountain Park, unpredictable weather, wonderful folk. Oh, and there's generally an X-Marks meet-up at the Tartan Museum Tent, so come on.

I didn't get to visit a games when in Scotland, but I wouldn't expect what we have. I know I will enjoy getting to one there. Variety is educational.