I just found out how little I really knew about my family, the McEacherns. For personal reasons, I had not looked carefully into some memorabilia that my grandma McEachern left when she died. The trunk I opened last year in July had the book of Kintyre in it, and it also had a locked, metal chest that I shoved aside. It didn't have a key, so I put it out of my mind.
Yesterday I decided to break into the metal box. I thought there might be something useful in it that Shauna might need on her trip. Inside were all of the records of the McEacherns from the time they left Kintyre to the present day...or when the journals ended in 1987.
I was wrong about when they left Scotland. Neill McEachern was BORN in 1790. He left Kintyre with his second wife, Effie McKellar in 1820. They lived in a Scottish community in America, for the sons married women with surnames of McInnis, McLauren, and Fletcher.
I still know very little of their lives before leaving Scotland, but at least I have the American side sorted
I thought the first Neill McEachern to arrive in the Carolinas had LEFT Scotland in 1790.
I really do appreciate everyone's help. I just knew next to nothing about the family when I arrived in Campbeltown. You can imagine how surprising it was to hear all about your people from a complete stranger...a stranger that treated you like family.