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Glenelgs in Scotland, Ontario, and New Brunswick

There are some interesting connections between Glenelg parish, Inverness-shire, Scotland, and two settlements of the same name in what is now Canada: One in Kent County, New Brunswick, and the other in Glengarry County, Ontario.

While trying to discover more about John & Euphemia's eldest son John, who it is said "went west to Glengarry", I made contact with a genealogist descended from some Glengarry County McIntoshes. While we do not have enough information to positively identify the John son of John mentioned in Deedie Meservey's notes, we did find the following interesting census records:

From the 1851 census of Lochiel Township, Glengarry Co., Ontario [1]:

  Name Occupation Birthplace Religion Married Age
25 John McIntosh Labourer P E Island Free Church X 49
26 Cathn McIntosh   Scotland ditto X 48
27 John McIntosh ditto New Brunswick ditto   24
28 Angus McIntosh ditto ditto ditto   17
29 Ann McIntosh ditto ditto ditto   14
30 Cathn McIntosh ditto ditto ditto   16
31 Margret McIntosh ditto ditto ditto   7
32 Sally McIntosh ditto ditto ditto   9
33 An? McIntosh ditto ditto ditto   5
34 Janet McIntosh ditto ditto ditto   2

From the 1861 census of Wellington Parish, Kent Co., New Brunswick [2]:

  Name Sex Relationship to head Age Race and where born Occupation Religion
2956 John McIntosh m husband 59 Scotch, P E Island Farmer Presbyterian
2957 Catherine " f wife 52 Scotch, Scotland   "
2958 John " m son 35 Scotch, province Farmer Presbyterian
2959 Margarett " f daughter 17 Scotch, province   "
2960 Flora " f daughter 13 Scotch, province   "
2961 Jennet " f daughter 11 Scotch, province   "
2962 Ellen " f daughter 4 Scotch, province   "

Despite the age mismatches here and there, the unusual combination of birthplaces makes it quite clear that these are the same family. There's further corroboration of this family's story in the New Brunswick Land Grant Petitions [3]:

1826 March 18

John MacIntosh, aged 2? years, married with no children, born in Prince Edward Island, came to Buctouche with his parents 7 years ago from Upper Canada ... [petitions for] a wilderness tract of land situated in the Glenelg settlement at the head of the Black River in this parish in the rear of land granted to Donald McIntosh & formed easterly by that granted to David McIntosh...

We also have a likely marriage record [4]:

A John McIntosh married Catherine McNeill on August 18, 1825 in the Parish of Wellington, Kent CO., NB, Canada. It was with parental and mutual consent. Witnessed/in the presence of Neil McIntosh and Donald McIntosh.

So this John was born about 1802 on Prince Edward Island, moved as a child to Upper Canada with his parents, then back to New Brunswick about 1819 -- about the same time as David & Donald MacIntosh. He took a Scottish-born wife, and petitioned the Crown for land in N.B. shortly before the birth of their first son, John. About 1850 he and his wife and eight children moved back to Upper Canada, only to return to New Brunswick again by 1857, where they had a ninth child (Ellen). He was remarkably peripatetic for an era when transport was still dominated by horse and sail.

However, the fact that this individual passed back and forth between a Glenelg populated by MacIntoshes in Ontario and a Glenelg populated by MacIntoshes in New Brunswick suggests that these two communities were related by more than an accidental coincidence of names. There is also a record of the marriage of David & Betsey MacIntosh in Glenelg, Scotland, as well.

There is also a Glenelg Parish in Northumberland County, N.B., from whence came the MacBeaths who are so intertwined with the MacIntoshes of Kent County, N.B.


[1] National Archives of Canada census microfilm C-11722. Lochiel Twp., Glengarry Co., Ontario, p.143, as cited at http://www.telusplanet.net/public/cfdun/mcintoshnav.htm
[2] Census microfilm C-1003. Wellington Parish, Kent Co., New Brunswick p.75
[3] Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, microfilm F4206
[4] Marriage Registers, Northumberland County, Vol I (1806-1832), 221/222 (transcribed by Don Beattie)

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This page last updated 2002 November 17.