Nicholsons and MacIvers--Discovering Family History on the Isle of Lewis

My cousin, Ken Nicholson, put me in touch with cousins who live in South Dell in Ness on the Isle of Lewis.  At the time of our visit they were house sitting for their daughter in Inverness so they met us in the cafe at the Culloden Visitors Centre on 4/19/17.  We thoroughly enjoyed our almost two hours with Margaret and Donald Gillies.  They are actually related to Ken on his Nicholson side rather than directly to me.  Our grandmothers were sisters and they both married Nicholson cousins.  The Gillies gave us the name and phone number for Anne MacSween(sp?) at the Ness Historical Society.  They also told us about a delightful shop that their niece had where we had another nice visit but will talk more about that later.  Donald also gave us directions to their house/croft so we could at least drive by.  Donald also told us that my great great great grandfather had lived on Croft #26 in Tolsta!

When I called the Ness Historical Society on 4/20/17 after arriving on the Isle of Lewis, Anne agreed to see us the next day at 10AM and also gave me the name of Anna MacKenzie, who heads the Tolsta Historical Society.  Anna happened to be working at the Lews Castle/Museum (in Stornaway where we were staying) which we had planned to visit anyway so on Thursday we headed there.  She was a delightful, helpful, and friendly person --as we found all the folks on the island to be.  She wanted me to meet with Donald Murray of Tolsta as he was the resident expert. She took the family genealogy that I had brought and promised to copy and return it.  As we were leaving, I mentioned our visit 17 years ago and the time that the Murrays and Donald MacDonald had given us as we found a Murray connection.  It turned out that Donald has worked with her in the society and said she'd give him a call--we had lost contact and I'd e-mailed him but gotten no response.

As we were having dinner that evening, Donald texted and invited us over to his sister's house right then!  He came and picked us up.  We had a great time catching up and talking a bit about family connections.  Donald also printed out a map of Tolsta with Croft #26 marked. There are no road names--just the croft numbers which are our house numbers.

We met with Anne at 10 the next morning in Ness (4/21/17) and she filled in a few blanks for us on the MacIver side and shared some stories and history with us.  They also had a little museum and gift shop so we learned more about life there.  Again we were so impressed with her giving us her time with so little notice.

That evening we were to meet with Anna and Donald Murray at a carpark near the croft.  We got there early and found the house and took pictures.When Anna arrived she told me the house was empty so we could walk around the side and look into the back of the croft where the remains of the original croft was! It was very moving to think that John Nicholson lived there before he emigrated to Canada in 1851.

When Donald arrived we caravanned to the Tolsta Historical Society--which again we wouldn't have found due to no street names.  We spent about an hour with them listening to stories of the crofters.  What an invaluable amount of information!

On our last trip we hadn't gone to the Ness side of the island--they aren't connected, and all I knew were the names Tolsta and Gress from the birth records we had.  I learned that the whole area of Gress had been "cleared" and that a lot of those MacIvers had then moved over into Ness which is why I couldn't find anything in Gress.

All together we spent time with 8 people who went out of their way to welcome us, to help inform us, and to help us learn more about my family.  What a wonderful group of people we found on the Isle of Lewis!

House on Croft #26

Looking at the log narrow croft behind the house

Enlarge the rock pile at the right behind the house and that's part of the original croft building!