DNA Discovery

The prompt for this blog post is “DNA”.

For many years, my ancestor, William McDonald of Glasgow, was something of a mystery to me.

What I did know was that William McDonald married Margaret Bowie of Hutchesontown, Glasgow, on 11 December 1824 in Gorbals. William and Margaret had three children: Elizabeth Harvey* McDonald (my ancestor), Salis Schwabe McDonald and Margaret McDonald.  Salis Schwabe was named after a German Industrialist who had businesses in Glasgow and Manchester.  Sadly, Margaret McDonald nee Bowie died sometime between 1833 and 1838, leaving William a widower with three young children.

William remarried in 1838, to Grace Davies.  In the marriage record, William is described as a cloth lapper, which covers several different possible activities, but all working with textiles.  I have no record of William after the 1841 Census, he and Grace did not have any children that I know of.  The 1841 Census did give me a date of birth for William of around 1804.

William’s daughter’s Elizabeth and Margaret both married and they moved to Australia independently in the 1850s.  Salis Schwabe McDonald was a bad egg and was transported to Bermuda for his crimes; I have not discovered his ultimate fate.

In a desperate effort to find out more about William McDonald, I made a list of all likely William McDonalds baptised in the Glasgow area around 1804.  I think I ended up with about six possibilities.

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Separately to investigating Scottish baptisms, I was working my way through my and my uncle’s DNA matches. I eventually came across a match whose tree included the family of one of the baptisms I had found.  After further investigation, I found several more DNA matches connected to the same ancestors, and some were also related to my closer Macdonald relative. Success!

I determined that my ancestor William McDonald was baptised on 20 May 1804, Barony, Lanarkshire, Scotland, an area in Glasgow.  William was youngest known child of William McDonald and Janet Ferguson. His siblings were Alexander, Agnes and Janet. Father William McDonald was a soldier in the 3^rd Veterans Battalion, who became a Chelsea Pensioner in 1814 and died in 1845.  I am not sure yet if he fought in the Napoleonic wars or if he remained stationed in Scotland.  Mother Janet was still living in 1851, she shows up in the census records as living with her daughter Agnes who married a David Abercrombie. It is possible that the younger William McDonald was outlived by both of his parents.

With this DNA breakthrough, I have been able to extend my family tree back a long way.  William’s paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Stewart, was descended from wealthy and landed families, who will be the subjects of future blog posts.

*Harvey may be spelled Hervey, Harvie or other variations.

Notes on lineage: Me > Mum > John Macdonald Charley > Constance Mary Macdonald > James Gordon Macdonald > Elizabeth Harvey McDonald > William McDonald