McPherson, Daniel: the hunt for his ancestors

The Search for Daniel McPherson's Ancestors

Site Links:

Carter Memoir

McPherson data from IGI Batch #C110982

Christening record

Miscellaneous Data

Off-site Links:

Hugh Wallis's website

Gen-Web Scotland: Inverness

Operation Dunlichity: Notes from Parish Registers

Text of Daniel's biography written by John Calvin McPherson

The hunt for Daniel's ancestors has attracted many, but so far without any sure results. I have been on the hunt myself for ten years. Since then, I've noticed a number of websites showing possible, unconfirmed Daniel information as fact. It's understandable; we'd all like to succeed at this, but careless research misdirects everyone. Among the errors:

confusion with the other indentured Daniel who came to America about the time this Daniel was married, but lived in Maryland
Ruth Shires's birthplace shown as Inverness
a number of Daniel & Ruth's children born in Inverness
the assumption that possibilities are in fact, fact! when there is no proof

Daniel's activities and family life in the colonies of Pennsylvania and Delaware are well documented. Quaker church records, land deeds, and other sources have all contributed dependable information. However, at this time, we know of no information regarding Daniel's life in Scotland that is documented and proven to be referencing him.

The purpose of these pages is to collect and organize all of this data on one site, so researchers can begin to sort through what's true, what might be true, and what we still need to know.

Here are some of the resources at our disposal:

Much of what we know about Daniel's history, the kidnapping, indenture, and family information comes from an account written by John Calvin McPherson, who lived from 1846 - 1891. The memoirs of Miriam Carter Douglas, in the form of a letter she wrote for a Carter family Reunion, held in Clinton County, Ohio in 1907, include a section on Daniel, and this section is heavily drawn from the John Calvin McPherson account. The original of John Calvin McPherson's account of Daniel's life is held at the Chester County Historical Society. Portions of this document have been copied on many sites, without giving credit to the originals. The original of the Carter memoir is located at ---- Library in Indiana. (lost my notes on this; please let me know if you can help.)

here

here.

Hugh Wallis's website (this link is off-site) has provided a wonderful resource: the IGI (International Genealogical Index) data for the British Isles organized into batches by location and time period.

I have recorded and, when possible, organized into families (using parents' names--this grouping is only probably accurate!), the christening records for McPhersons in Inverness from Batch #C11092, (Inverness, Inverness, Scotland). This job will be finished at some point, but as of now, only covers through record #51, which is in the early 1700s.

You can see the results of this here: Batch McPherson data

I have a copy of a christening record from the Old Parochial Register (OPR). The record of this is in the above batch, for a Daniel McPherson, christened in December of 1692. Many have taken this to be "our" Daniel and are listing his birthdate as 1692. See the wording of this christening record , a scan of the record, and discussion of this possibility.

Included in this site are some of the bits and pieces of Daniel's life in America. You can see these on the Miscellaneous Data page.

This website is not, of course, complete, and will be updated as often as new information is discovered and researched. Comments, corrections, and of course, additional information, from Daniel researchers are always welcome. .