Once upon a time, in the late 1700s, there was a couple named Duncan and Ann (Kelso) McCormack who lived on the Isle of Arran (town of Corrie) off the western coast of Scotland. They had two sons, John (born 1802) and William (born 1806) who emigrated to Canada, arriving in Dalhousie, New Brunswick in June 1832. Each of them received a land grant of 200 acres.
William had seven children—the youngest, Alexander, is my great-grandfather.At some point, the spelling of the family names diverged. John’s clan became McCormicks and William’s added an ‘a’ to become MacCormacks.
That’s what I learned in my research last night, anyway. I’ve also found hooks into the Murchie side of my family (my maternal grandmother) and the Skene clan (my paternal grandmother), some of which lead back to the early 1700s, pending confirmation of the information. Apparently a lot of Scots from the Isle of Arran came to New Brunswick. I always thought we had more than a tinge of Irish in us, but other than some clan from Tipperary many generations back, it’s all Scottish and English…and French. One side of my father’s family is very French. My father probably wouldn’t have been impressed!
I skipped Fear Itself last night, which was for the best from all reports I’ve heard thus far. I do have it on DVR, so I might check it out if I get bored. I did watch a Scissor Sisters concert in London that I stumbled across, which was good fun. They did the funniest, campiest disco version of “Comfortably Numb” I’ve ever witnessed. It was almost unrecognizable. I first heard of the group when one of their songs was on a Season 3 episode of Doctor Who.
I finished my Storytellers Unplugged essay this morning and loaded it onto the time-delay dashboard so it will magically show up at 5:00 a.m. Central time on Tuesday, the 17th.
