Relatively speaking, it was quite a surprising discovery. Three colleagues who help people delve into their family histories unearthed the fact they are themselves related. Not only that, they also found they are all connected to both The King and to Robert the Bruce.
Inverness family archive staff have direct link to a king Anne Fraser, Alison Mason and Alasdair MacDonald work together at the in Inverness. Family historian Anne researched her own family tree many years ago. She discovered her great, great grandfather had married a Catherine Mackenzie from Gairloch.
From there, a direct link was found to King Robert I who was victorious in the 1314 Battle of Bannockburn. Alison also took up research started by her parents on their family trees. She discovered her great (x6) grandfather was the Rev James Robertson who delivered a sermon in 1773 before one of the first emigrations from Scotland to Canada.
The Hector left from Ullapool carrying 200 passengers whose lives had become insufferable after the Jacobite defeat at . The minister married Anne Mackenzie which provided a link to Anne Fraser’s family. “As soon as I saw the name I knew exactly who she was”, said Anne.
“It was the hook I needed.” Clan chief is the common family link Alasdair started researching his family background from his grandmother, Florence Gillies, who lived in Cromarty and whose parents were from Skye. He went back a few generations to the Macdonalds of Sleat, including Sir James Macdonald w.