Duncan McKay was the eldest son of Donald McKay and Isabella Fraser of Balguneerie. He was born at the croft and grew up on the Black Isle and married Jane Noble on 24 Jun 1861. Duncan became a railway worker on the new railways that were spreading north from Edinburgh. As a result he moved house quite often and lived wherever the work took him. So his Children were born in several different locations around Inverness. His eldest son Donald was born in Elgin in 1861 and the second son Roderick was born in Urray two years later. Eventually the family moved south to Burnt Island on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth where Duncan lived in the crossing keeper’s house near the railway yard on the Lammerlaws. The young family grew up here in the 1870s overlooking Leith Harbour on the south shore of the Firth and the construction site of the Forth Railway Bridge to the West. Duncan is said to have opened the Burnt Island crossing to the train involved in the Tay bridge disaster in December 1879. His neighbour, an engine driver and good friend drove the first train across the Forth railway bridge. So it was a heady time for railway engineering at Burnt Island, and the influence on the young family was profound.  

Duncan McKay born circa 1835 in Petty, Inverness Scotland
 

Donald McKay & Jane Noble with children Jane, Isabella, Christina, John,  Alexander & James circa 1875

Duncan’s eldest son Donald became an engineer with the Carron Ironworks. Several of the male members of the family headed across the Atlantic to America. Roderick, Johnny, Alex and Jim all left Scotland. Roderick eventually became the chief constructional engineer on the Los Angeles aqueduct. But Donald married and settled at Stenhousemuir. He had 3 children, Duncan, Isabella and Jeannie whilst living there. But after the birth of the third child, something went wrong. Donald left his wife and moved to England with his three children.

It had long been wondered why they left Scotland. Family have always loved to visit the highlands to walk and climb in the mountains.   Auntie Ki always said  that her father Donald was very fond of Scotland and went back up north every summer for several weeks. So why did he leave? Was it purely the difficult economic circumstances in Scotland at that time or was there something else that nobody would talk about?  

Donald MacKay born in Elgin in 14 Sep 1861
to Duncan MacKay & Jane Noble

He married Margaret MacDonald

There have been quite a few stories circulating in the family about what the possible reasons could be. Aunty Ki had been told that her mother was an evil woman and her father instructed her to slam the door in her face if she ever came to Cambridge. When her mother did come, Auntie Ki did exactly as instructed and slammed the door. She never knew her mother and on her mother’s death the inheritance that she and her father were sent, was posted right back to the solicitors, with the comment by my great grandfather “We don’t want any of that money”.  

There had to be something behind this mysterious silence.  The family knew the basic facts, Donald  married Margaret Macdonald and she lived in Edinburgh. Auntie Ki had a cousin Isabella Rafferty who lived in Reading and whilst she knew Aunty Ki, for some reason they had fallen out. Perhaps because Isabella Rafferty had tried to talk about Margaret with Aunty Ki. but, Aunty could not accept that her mother was anything other than an evil woman.  

The only hope of finding an answer lay in a meeting with Isabella Rafferty. A letter was written to her last known address in Reading requesting help with  search for a solution to this mystery. “But answer came there none…”.It seems the letter either went to an old address, or Isabella didn’t want to respond. So that seemed to be the end of it. Until about 3 months later, when  a letter came from a firm of solicitors. It seems that the original letter arrived just weeks after Isabella had died. Her estate was being sorted out and her house was being sold. If the family could prove the relationship to her, the solicitor mentioned that there might be some inheritance, as she died intestate, with no direct relatives.

Further research found Margaret MacDonald's  father, John MacDonald ,  had been a blacksmith responsible for constructing many of the wrought iron railings on the stone steps in Edinburgh.   His wife was named Isabella

That’s the story almost as far as it goes…except for the solicitors….they continued to research the relationship between all the people claiming to be descendants of the McDonalds and they came across a problem. Their Genealogist was having a lot of difficulty tracing the family. None of the dates seemed to correspond with the records. The birth certificates of the McDonald children did not seem to be related to marriage date of John and Isabella and they couldn’t find Margaret at all. The family were listed in Edinburgh in the 1881 census and all the children were listed together with their places and dates of birth. They were living in a tenement building in Glover Street. The Genealogist armed with this information went to have another look and came across a very curious finding. The marriage date on all the children’s birth certificates did not agree with the Marriage certificate from Newcastle upon Tyne of John and Isabella. But eventually she did find Margaret’s birth recorded at Miltown (just north of the Black isle). She was illegitimate. So they concluded that the parents had falsely shifted their marriage date on the birth certificates of the other children to give the impression that Margaret was born just after they were married.

A mystery to be solved one day perhaps

Aunty Ki ( Isabella)  MacKay born to

Donald MacKay & Margaret MacDonald