This edition of the Mac Isaac Journal is dedicated to Robert (Bobby) Gillis. Bobby had a love for the ocean and a gift for photography. Included in the journal is a very small sample of his love.
The first member of the MacIsaac family to emigrate from the island of Canna across the Atlantic was Allan, ( Ailean Neill). He was born in 1751 and was the oldest of Neil MacIsaac’s family. There appears to be conflicting information on the year of his arrival to Prince Edward Island (PEI). According to Allan Gillis, a great grandson, Allan came over with the Glenaladale settlers in 1772 (MacLean’s History of Antigonish). In the reconstruction of the list of Glenaladale settlers, which is being assembled at this time I have been informed that there are no MacIsaac’s on this list. Also the Inverness census of 1818 disputes this information by having Allan’s oldest son John born in Scotland in1782. Nevertheless, whether he came with them or a few years later, he would have been affected by the close proximity of these settlers to his settlement on PEI. Before the eviction of the Highlanders by their own chiefs in the early years of the 19th century for the purpose of clearing the land for sheep, there were other reasons that led to emigration. After the Jacobite Rising and the battle of Culloden in 1745, the Penal Laws against the Catholics were strictly enforced in Scotland. The Scottish Penal Laws sought nothing short of total extermination of Catholicism. In 1770, Colin MacDonald of Boisdale on the island of South Uist, having himself been insulted by a Catholic Priest, waged an all out war to convert his people to the Protestant religion. The people refused and he evicted them. The plight of the people of South Uist came to the attention of John MacDonald, the Laird of Glenaladale and Glenfinnan who mortgaged his property to provide passage for them. Glenaladale purchased an estate on St. John’s Island (PEI). The Catholic Church helped with the passage money. In the latter part of June 1772 the ship “Alexander’carrying 210 passengers arrived at Charlottetown Harbor and then proceeded up the East River to the MacDonald Estate. This History of PEI would have affected Allan MacIsaac because he lived on the Island until 1811 when he left to join his brother Angus and his sister Anne in Inverness. Prince Edward Island was divided up into large estates like the one owned by Glenaladale and for the most part the owners were absentee landowners. People like Allan could not purchase the land they worked or get a grant as the land was already taken. Allan rented a tract of land on East Point. He married a Mary MacDonald and had a large family. One of his sons John came over to Inverness in 1803 with his Uncle Angus (Grandpa Lewis’s Great Grandfather) to help him clear the land and later in 1811 brought the rest of the family over. His father Allan died the following year. Allan lived in a house close to where the railway station is now located and owned all the land from MacIsaac’s pond to MacIsaac Street. John settled in Strathlorne and was the father of the famous Fr. Cannon MacIsaac. John (Butch) MacIsaac is a descendant of this John on his mother’s side. Another of Allan’s children was Mary who married Alexander Gillis a native of Morar, Scotland who pioneered at Broad Cove March. They had a large family. Their youngest daughter Catherine was married to another Alexander Gillis and they were grandma’s (Bella) parents.
Grandma (Belles) mother Catherine was the daughter of Allan Gillis, son of Mary MacIsaac, not the daughter of Mary. Mary was Bella's great grandmother and Allan MacIsaac (from PEI) was her great great grandfather. --Terry (Mac Isaac) JohnsonI often think about my genealogy and have come to greatly value the knowledge it has provided into who and why I am. I am always interested in spending time with my relatives because as I get to know them, I learn about myself and appreciate some of the extraordinary traits that we have all inherited. In particular, I am always trying pin down traits as belong to the Gillis or Mac Isaac side of the family. I may be wrong, and I would certainly like to be enlightened, but it appears that a predominant Mac Isaac trait seems to be this inner drive, (more like fire) that manifests in passion and expression to succeed at what ever is attempted at all costs. I see it in so many of my relatives, who I will not name for fear that I might offend. But certainly John Leo Mac Isaac and Rose (Mac Isaac) Mac Lean are perhaps the greatest examples of this intense power of will. Do not misunderstand, I am in no way equating the two; I'm merely suggesting that they seem to have been driven and in Rose's case is still driven by a very powerful inner desire to assert one's will. I see it in many others as well, and most importantly, I see it in myself. It can be both a good force--the catalyst of achievement, but it also can be an evil force--giving rise to an ugly monster. The key for all of us is to understand this drive and use it for positive ends, and for the most part, I think we are succeeding.
The second predominate family trait that I attribute to the Gillis side of the family is our propensity for compassion and empathy with a gentle, unassuming disposition, quite different and in stark contrast to the Mac Isaac tempest. What makes our family so uniquely interesting is that we have this quasi-schizophrenic mix of sensitivity and strength. Grandma Isabel (Gillis) Mac Isaac was a great example of this compassion. My mother (Patsy Mac Isaac) has often related stories of how Grandma Isabel would make clothing for the poor in Inverness. And none of us will ever forget the mittens that came before each winter when we were children. We grandchildren, who lived so many miles away and spent very little time in her physical presence, were and still are profoundly touched by her connection, her reaching out, and now that I think of it, how symbolic it was that those mittens were sown together with one long thread of yarn that went up one sleeve, over the shoulders and down the other sleeve, connected, made as one, and eternally linked. I have always felt her love. The late Annie (Mac Isaac) Dixon was a clone of that compassionate outreaching temperament, which lives on and will continue to live on in many of us. Although this deep compassion for life is very prevalent in many women of our clan, it was always clear to me that Bobby Gillis exemplified this extraordinary sensitivity. His quite, gentlemanly manner, his wry humor, and introspective nature was something that I always admired and loved about him. He did more than live life, he felt life and became part of life, and particularly, he became part of the ocean--perhaps because he knew it that it is the greatest force of life. He was a sailing ship gliding across her waves of support, not particularly going anywhere, but continually taking time to appreciate and rest upon her life and her life force. Although we will all miss his physical presence, every time we sit on the bluff or any shore and look out over that vast body of water, we will be in the company of the spirit of Bobby Gillis.
We are in Moncton and we went to see David play hockey in Saint John last night. We had a real good time, and saw David after the game. He gave us a hockey stick and talked to us for a while, then Uncle Lew took a picture of the three of us.... we are sending the pictures to you. Tomorrow we are going to out Aunt Issy`s for Thanksgiving dinner. Some of our family are going to be there too so we should have a good time. Here come the pictures... Talk to you soon.Liam and Cal MacIsaac (Frank's boys)
A winter reunion is in the works. We are trying to get together for a weekend on the weekend of March 10, 11, 12, 2000, somewhere in Northern Maine. If your are interested, contact Bill AuCoin or Anne Cummings (email addresses below) so we can begin to make plans.
Just remembered a true story from school. A grade four art class busy drawing and talking. This time the conversation was about religion. One child says I'm Protestant another says I'm Catholic, another says I'm Jehovah Witness then a little girl pipes up and says Mrs. Murphy I'm nothing, do you want to know why? I said "Why?" She said "Because my mother is Catholic and my father is Protestant." Little guy beside her says " That would make you United".