Report

No great "aha" moments to report.  However, I have collected some material that may be helpful (CEF Commonwealth War Graves Registers 1914-1919 with McCaw names who were killed in action.  Also some McCaws on a website for the Macintosh Reunion, and a few other records).  There is so much information I have gleaned and the trick is to organize and put it into perspective.  In this research, it is easy to assume this McCaw or that McCaw is attached to a specific line, but verification is needed.  There are a lot of Johns and Alexanders, etc.  Since I learned to do all this in university, I just have to go back - waaaaay back - and remember how to organize and verify, which should keep me out of trouble for the whole summer.  I will post and share whatever I come up with.  There are many branches and migrations and some stayed in Scotland and Ireland as well. I want to research the branch that went to Australia as well. The U.S. has many, many Mccaws and eventually way back, we are all related. Any comments and help would be appreciated.

NEW INFO

In the process of dowloading 30 generations from familysearch.org, I have come across some interesting names. However, there is still a lot to verify and duplications to correct.  Once it is finished, I should have as accurate a family tree as possible within Rootsmagic. There are duplicates and errors on both familysearch and ancestry.com, but hey - we are all fallible.  One or two of those mistakes are mine.  New information is coming in all the time as indexers offer their time and resources to make original documents available to us.  It is a very rewarding thing to do.  Ancestry.com has a world indexing project, as does familysearch.org. I have volunteered for both.
Getting back to our family tree, I thought you might like to see one of the pages about the woman I found who was a princess of the Picts...(still to be verified as being in our tree).  It is on my StumbleUpon site, along with other geneology treasures:
     Sharon's geneology sites

Working Hard

Still wrapping my brain around the M'Caw connections directly to Duncan.  Meantime, checking out hints on Ancestry.com and downloading the gedcom to my Rootsmagic program.  Sometimes I can find and fill in gaps from familysearch.org and import that directly into Rootsmagic.  Then I can automerge everything because doing it this way (as opposed to creating a separate file every time) does create duplicates.  However, with programs like Rootsmagic, checking sources and comparing people and correcting is easy (my duplicates and others').
Stewart's final chapter (so far) of his Memoirs covers how he got started in this adventure of internet geneology social networking.  I also wrote a "chapter" about how I discovered my roots and how Stewart and I collaborated. Finally got a final edit done and sent the two in to Internet Geneology magazine.  A few months' wait now (the downside of authorship).  Whether accepted or rejected, we are both encouraged to continue our work. 

Research

I was doing my shift at the Family History Center last night and came across a book entitled A Census of Ireland circa 1659.  I looked up County Antrim and it listed the "gentlemen" who owned land, and then, at the bottom, the surnames who were living in that county.  There were 9 McCaws at that time.  Will have to do some digging and wrap my brain around what I already have to find out given names. Sometimes the information is right in front of one's face and, in this case, I seem to remember some tenant information and their landlords' names.  Will keep you posted.

And by the way, if you are doing your own family research that connects to the McCaws, please don't hesitate to leave a comment and maybe we can help each other.

NEW LINK

I just had a peek at the nalil blogspot  site and found some links that are pertinent to our history.  Here is one good example:  ULSTER SCOTS IN AMERICA  This man has written a whole book and made it available to us.  How wonderful!

What a coincidence

I don’t know if it’s the evolution of DNA or if it a coincidence but people are getting more and more interested in there ancestry. This week alone there have been 3 programs on British television with regard to my interest in my ancestry.

The first on was Steven Barkers story after a 10 year study, how his interpretation of the use of the Domesday Book was not written for taxation prepossess , it was about power, control, ownership, and law, it was about something far more important than money.

Second there is a program called Time Team .They are a team of archaeologists’ who carry out digs mainly by the national trust. This week they were on the Isle of Mull, located in the Scottish Isles, and they found a chapel built by St Columba. On a monastery which no one knew of existed because of a spelling mistake, or an error in the interpretation in a translation St Columba started Christianity in the British Isles, maybe Europe.It was dated about year 500

The third one is a program called The Story of Ireland Fergal Keane explores Ireland’s history, documenting its role on the international stage. He begins by revisiting the origins of Celtic people looking on the impact on early Christianity and monasticism, and the birth of Ireland’s literary culture.

The connection between the three is The Domesday book was the first record of commoners needing and having a surname.

The Time Team dig was not far from The Isle of Bute where the family were land owners in the 1580.

The Story of Ireland was because The McCaw’s move to Ireland and became part of the Ulster Scotts.