Dear All I'm trying to find out how my great grandfather Hugh McKinnon (1837 - 1919) met his wife Catharine Carmichael (1835 - 1907). Can anybody tell me whether the Carmichael's of Kynagarry were related to the Carmichael's of Tarbert, Argyll? My McKinnon forebears came from Kynagarry on Islay. The first verifiable record of their presence other than baptism & death records is recorded in the 1828 Blackbook in which they are listed as holding lot 250 in Kynagarry under the name Lachlan McKinnon (1769 - 1824). Lachlan was already dead by 1828 and the lease was inherited by his son John (1793 - 1860) who worked as a mason and ran it jointly with his brother Malcolm (1809 - 1876). I don't know exactly when the family was thrown off the land but all of John's four sons Donald (1824 - 1891), Lachlan (1826 - 1869) Alexander (1835 - 1926) and Hugh (1837 - 1919) born at Kynagarry ended up as young men in Greenoch, all but one in the Police Force (Alexander was briefly a prison warden). The two younger brothers emigrated to New Zealand. Alexander in 1862 and Hugh most probably in 1870, the year after his older brother Lachlan a police inspector was killed by a drunk on New Year's Day (1869). New Zealand was good to them and they eventually became reasonably successful farmers in Southland. You couldn't easily take up land in New Zealand without a partner and Hugh had either arranged this ahead of time or after he arrived in New Zealand? Anyway, in October 1871 Hugh (1837 - 1919) married Catherine (1835 - 1907) a couple of weeks after she arrived in Dunedin. How did they come to this arrangement? How did they meet? Was it arranged before they left Scotland or was Catherine a mail order bride? There is no correspondence. Hugh had been working in Greenoch and Catherine had been working as a domestic servant in Rothesay. I can only guess but there could have been a long established relationship between the Carmichael's and McKinnon's. The Carmichaels Dugald and Neil farmed land adjacent to the McKinnon's in Kynagarry respectively lots 248 and 249. Over the two generations they were neighbours had their families become quite close? Close enough to arrange a marriage like that between Hugh and Catherine when they were both were in their mid thirties? Given the conditions in which they lived, making a home on an open field with two young children in a tent, in an area subject to severe winter frosts and heavy winds and rain with next to no money, it's quite remarkable that they raised five children. You had to be tough and for a woman, mother and wife it must have been extremely difficult. I hope somebody in the Islay network can help Sincerely John McKinnon 48 Ferry Road Days Bay Wellington 5013 New Zealand Tel/Fax +64 4 5627138 Mobile +64 21 1350103