Markers to Emigration from North West Sutherland: The Presbyterian Cemeteries of Lot 21 of Prince Edward Island

Malcolm Bangor-Jones

doi:10.3390/genealogy5020035

Abstract

A number of studies of emigrant communities in Canada have utilized the evidence from gravemarkers to indicate place of origin. This investigation of gravemarkers from five Presbyterian cemeteries on Lot 21 of Prince Edward Island demonstrates emigration from an area of the north west Highlands of Scotland to a particular community over a period of approximately 50 years. The chronology of emigration as revealed in the gravemarkers is analysed in the light of what is known about tenurial change within the homeland. Emigrant histories of several individuals or families recorded in two of the cemeteries have been compiled to examine their family and communities in the homeland, to set out the circumstances under which they emigrated and to outline the challenges they faced in Canada. An examination of the evidence from gravemarkers alongside a study of extant surnames and family reconstitution suggests that, in this case, gravemarkers provide a valuable but only partial indication of precise origin.

Highlights

Lot 21 in Granville Parish of Prince Edward Island (PEI) had sufficient settlers from the county of Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands to allow it to be regarded today as one of several of what have been termed “transplanted Sutherland communities” in Canada (Hunter 2015, p. 321)
This article analyses the information from gravemarkers and provides a handful of emigrant histories to detail the chronology of emigration and the circumstances under which people left the north and west of Sutherland over a 50-year period
The information provided by the gravemarkers comes in the first instance from the PEI Genealogical Society transcripts supplemented by the author’s fieldwork (PEIGS 2000a, 2000b, 2000c, 2000d, 2011)

Summary

Introduction

Lot 21 in Granville Parish of Prince Edward Island (PEI) had sufficient settlers from the county of Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands to allow it to be regarded today as one of several of what have been termed “transplanted Sutherland communities” in Canada (Hunter 2015, p. 321). For instance, in his study of emigrants from the Isle of Lewis in Scotland to Winslow Township in Quebec notes how gravemarkers provide evidence of place of origin. He states how settlers identified with a certain district rather than with the township as a whole: each district had its own cemetery. In his study of the Irish settlers of Prince Edward Island, O’Grady notes how the tombstones in one Catholic cemetery refer to birthplaces in Tipperary, Kilkenny, Wexford and Waterford. He describes the memorials to Irish settlers in Charlottetown (O’Grady 2004, pp. 111, 199–201)

Emigration from the Scottish Highlands and the Settlement of PEI

An Overview of the Fieldwork Evidence

Emigrant Histories

Findings

Conclusions