This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/TeC.2ACE/1140.1 Message Board Post: Alexander was born not on South Uist but on the separate Isle of Benbecula, which was at the time part of the parish of South Uist. You will find him aged nine months in the 1851 Census for the township of Hacklet on the south-east quarter of the island, with his parents John MacLeod and Flora MacAulay. John was shown in the Census as b. 1816 and Flora 1824. Both were probably born in North Uist, at least if Bill Lawson's Register of Emigrants from the Western Isles of Scotland to Ontario, Part 1 Bruce Grey and Huron Counties is to be believed [see SUE232 or ON201]. However, I have John' father as from Lidistrome, Benbecula so it may be that his family had moved en masse rather than he himself moving to Benbecula when he married. Again according to Lawson, John and family emigrated frpom Hacklet to Kincardine Twnshp, Bruce County about 1851. Does that sound right for location? I very much doubt that the Bell part of Alexander's name was given at birth and suspect it must have been something adopted later. He had a younger sister Catherine b. 1852/3 who married Lachlan Bell. Could he perhaps have adopted the name in honour of his sister for some reason? Or could there have been an Alexander in the next generation who had the name? If I can help any further, do drop me an e-mail; the details are behind my name on the message board. Not sure I will be able to find anything further but I will have a look.