MacKelvies of Arran - emigrants from Kintyre?

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MacKelvies of Arran - emigrants from Kintyre?

Postby FionaMc » Sun Dec 02, 2012 11:39 am

Hi

I am starting to piece together the history of my mothers McKelvie family who still live on the Isle of Arran. Her father Alexander McKelvie left Arran in 1925 and later settled in New Zealand but his family remain in Arran to this day. The earliest date I have an ancestor living on Arran is Andrew M'Kelvie born C1780 a Farmer in Strathwhillan, later Corriegills (family still live there). I think this Andrew would be my 3Xggrandfather. The person who gave me this information was Alistair McKelvie formerly of Corriegills. Sadly Alistair passed away 4 years ago - he was my mothers cousin.

I have noticed the MacKelvies are a sept of the Argyll Campbells. I wonder if they moved from Kintyre to Arran. I find a lot of conflicting information about the history of MacKelvies. If anyone has any information to offer I would love to hear from them.

Thanks
Fiona
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Re: MacKelvies of Arran - emigrants from Kintyre?

Postby Iain » Sun Dec 09, 2012 11:55 am

Hi Fiona ! Didn’t find much when surfing Arran families. Nonetheless, I did stumble over this McKelvie family in New Zealand but there’s absolutely no dates. Unusual !
But perhaps the names might mean something to you ?

Alexander McKelvie
Birth in Bodick, Isle of Arran, Scotland
Death in Papakura, Auckland, New Zealand

Wife:
Marion Campbell
Birth in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland
Death in Dunedin, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand

Daughter private.

Father:
Andrew McKelvie
Birth in Brodick, Bute, Scotland
Death in Brodick, Bute, Scotland

Mother :
Anne Urquart
Birth in Isle of Skye, Scotland
Death in Brodick, Bute, Scotland

--------------------------------------------------

Then this one:

Alexander McKelvie
Birth 1897 in Scotland
Death 1972 in Papakura, Auckland, New Zealand

Marriage to Mary Jane Rhoda aka Cis McNamara; 3 Jul 1943
St Peters Caversham Dunedin New Zealand: Age: 46

2 children private:
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Re: MacKelvies of Arran - emigrants from Kintyre?

Postby FionaMc » Wed Dec 12, 2012 12:35 pm

Hi Iain

WOW you are good! This is my family too. The two children are my mother and aunt and their mother was Marion, Alexander's first wife. There were no other children and certainly none with Mary McNamara.

I have traced my grandfather's family back 4 generations on Arran but it is hard to find much information.

thanks for your help
Fiona
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Re: MacKelvies of Arran - emigrants from Kintyre?

Postby jwbas » Wed Feb 13, 2013 4:31 pm

I am a new member and this is my first post. My mother was born in Campbeltown and went straight from school at the age of fourteen to work for a solicitor - Matthew Dick, who lived at Auchmillan in Argyll Street. He was a partner in Dick and MacKelvie, solicitors and agents for the Bank of Scotland in Longrow.
Thomas MacKelvie, the other partner, was born in 1867 in Campbeltown, married Agnes Merrilees in 1901 and died in 1952.
They had one son, Alastair Greenlees MacKelvie, born in 1902.
Thomas MacKelvie's parents were Alexander (a distiller) and Jeannie Maxwell McMurchy. Thomas lived at Jeanniefield on High Askomil.
All the other McKelvies are spelt thus.
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Re: MacKelvies of Arran - emigrants from Kintyre?

Postby Iain » Fri Feb 15, 2013 6:54 am

Hi there ! Welcome to The Kintyre Forum..., :wink:
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Re: MacKelvies of Arran - emigrants from Kintyre - and McMurchy

Postby Margaret » Tue May 28, 2013 12:42 pm

Hello all, I've just came across this forum as I was searching my family online (my great grandfather) Alexander MacKelvie m Jeannie Maxwell McMurchy. The (McMurchy/)Colville side of the family has been relatively easy to trace, but I have been really struggling with the MacKelvie side.

Alexander MacKelvie (b 3 Aug 1834, m 1 June 1864, d 10 July 1883) and I believe had 8 or 9 children.

His father was Thomas MacKelvie or possibly Kelvie (?) and according to family history was a sea man born in Campbeltown (year unknown) , married to Marion Watson (who was born in Killean in 1806 (or 1813?) and she died in November 1878). I don't know when Thomas died but the 1861 census says Marion is by then the widow of a seaman. As far as I know they had two sons, Alexander (my gt grandfather b 1834 (above), and Thomas, born 1838 approx) ---

Thomas MacKelvie's parents were Thomas (also a sea man, born 1816 ??? unlikely) and Martha Campbell (info unknown).

Marion Watson's mother was Margaret, born in Killean about 1774, and the 1841 census states that she (Margret) is a pauper in Campbeltown with her family which consisted of her two daughters Marion (Murran) (b 1806) and Margaret (born c 1804) in Killean.

I have absolutely no information on any first wife for Alexander (before Marion) and all that I have on their generation or earlier is as above - please can someone fill in any details on anything and everything ..!

I have been searching census records recently and come up with the info above, and it does seem that spellings become a bit of a phonetic issue - so I also was interested in the comment that the surname is also spelt McKelvie (as well as Kelvie and Kelvey ..?)

My mother made some notes in the 1980s before she died: "Life has changed so much this century that I thought I would write a little about my life and the family that I belonged to. I am very proud to be a MacKelvie as I think they were a remarkable lot. The early history is sketchy. The first one I know of was Thomas Kelvie, a seaman, who married a Martha Campbell. He died in 1816 and his grave is in a small graveyard just outside Campbeltown on the Carradale Road. His son, Thomas, married Marian Watson and died in 1832. He was also a seaman and lived in Campbeltown. In those days it was a busy fishing port. My grandfather, Alexander, born in 1834, married Jeannie McMurchie, who was a distiller’s daughter. In those days there were many distilleries in and around Campbeltown, and that and fishing were the main industries of the town. In 1846 Alexander went to John Beith as a clerk. He became a distiller and was obviously a wealth man as he built the family house, Jeanniefield, named after his wife, a beautiful house overlooking the harbour and which remained in the family until after the death of my cousin Alastair in 1984. He also built the one next door, Gowanbank, for the McMurchies, his wife’s family. However there was a famous bank crash when the Bank of Glasgow became bankrupt, and he lost all of his money. Shortly after, both he and his wife died in their 50s of TB, which was very prevalent at the time, leaving a young family of 7 children, the youngest Jim being only a year old. Their children, my father and his siblings, were a remarkable lot. They were brought up by their McMurchie aunt who lived next door and to whom them were very devoted. They all began their education at the Campbeltown Grammar School but all finished their school in Edinburgh. As each one finished school and had a job, they helped to finance the next one, because the family had been left badly off."

Re Alexander MacKelvie's descendants - I have information on the following 6 generations - and am probably meeting up with some of Alastair's family later this summer. (His grandfather and my grandfather were 2 of the siblings).

Many thanks
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Re: MacKelvies of Arran - emigrants from Kintyre?

Postby Iain » Wed May 29, 2013 10:17 am

Hi Margaret..., welcome to the Kintyre Forum. Excellent post; I’m sure you’ll get a great response from the others involved. :) ..., Iain.
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