Emigration and Genealogy

"To the islander, the sea is a highway".  

Some had no choice, being evicted from their homes and forced onto boats.  Some intrepid islanders fancied their chance, and may have witnessed opportunities when travelling the world abord a merchant ship. Whether through choice or coercion, people at many points throughout history have left to seek a better life.

Famously, the mother of the US President, Donald Trump, Mary Anne MacLeod, left her home on the Isle of Lewis and emigrated to New York in the the 1930s.  In doing so, she followed in the footsteps of many Hebrideans down the generations whose pioneering island spirit has taken them around the world. Their culture, names and often their language travelled with them to the New World, but It wasn’t all plain sailing though.

When you arrive, you may feel like you never want to leave. But 200 years ago the Outer Hebrides were not the pretty, peaceful islands they are today. A melting pot of internal and external factors undermined traditional Hebridean society and depressed the island economy, convincing thousands of inhabitants over the years to emigrate en masse to pastures new. 

Collapse of Kelp  

The Napoleonic Wars kept the price of Hebridean kelp bouyant with strong demand for use in the fertiliser, soap and glass making, given imports were expensive, unreliable and in the end outlawed.  It was a fruitful source of employment and finance for the Outer Hebrides.  When peace returned, imports resumed and prices collapsed,  ultimately making thousands of islanders unemployed. 

Potato Famine 

A potato blight in 1847 spread mass starvation all across the Scottish Highlands and Islands. 

The Clearances

Many estates were "cleared" of their traditional tenant farmers into areas that supported livestock like sheep and deer, which produced higher incomes for the landlords, but required far fewer workers.  The Clearances took the form of waves of relocations, throughout the nineteenth century, where landlords paid, bribed or in many cases violently forced tenants to leave their land to reduce the population.  In the islands this often meant abandoning rich farming land on the west coast of the islands to scrape a living as a fisherman on the rocky east-coast. Faced with famine and widespread unemployment, many took their chance of a place on a departing ship and a new life overseas. 

The Crofting Act of 1886 was designed to respond to adress the injustrices of the Clearances, and provided tenants with the right of tenure.  However, issues of land ownership continued well into the twentieth century, in particular in South Uist, Vatersay and Lewis.  The return of people to previously "cleared" villages is only just outside of living memory and a number of "cleared" villages are still dotted on the landcape, notably Stiomrabhaig in Lewis  

Throughout the twentieth century periods of economic uncertainty have led to further waves of emigration, after both World Wars and during the Great Depression of the 1930s. To this day, April 1923 is marked down in island history as the month when a generation deaprted when 600 mainly young folk left the Outer Hebrides for Canada on two Canadian Pacific Line steampships - the SS Metagama from Stornoway and SS Marloch from Lochbosidale. 

The first big migration happened in the middle 1700s, when a group from Uist settled in North Carolina. From then on, the Americas and Canada became a fresh start for thousands of Hebridean families. Canada, in particular locations like Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island were the most popular. - both were predominantly Gaelic speaking at the start of the nineteenth century and Nova Scotia retains a Gaelic-speaking community to this day around Cape Breton  Over time Quebec, Ontario and Pennsylvania also saw their populations swell. Later, folk began to emigrate as far afield as Australia and New Zealand.  And that’s why there are MacNeills, MacDonalds and MacLeods all across the world to this day. 

The pull factors of these places were plentiful farmlands and local government cash incentives to work them. However, many found that the promises of free land and opportunity were exaggerated  and the struggles they had left behind continued in their new homes.  

If you’re interested in putting exact names and dates to Outer Hebrides genealogy and emigration, then a great place to start is one of the Historical Societies (or Comainn Eachdraidh) throughout the Western Isles.  Commun Eachdraich Nis, Uig Historical Society, Kinloch Historical Society, Taigh Chearsabhagh/North Uist Historical Society or Kildonan Museum/South Uist Hostorical Society all have archives to help those tracing family connections. 

Local legend Bill Lawson - author of our opening quote - has devoted much of his life to tracing the genealogy of the Outer Hebrides, and founded Cò leis thu? (Who do you belong to?) a service at Northton Heritage Trust's Seallam! centre in West Harris for those interested in genealogy.