When I get bored with my e-mail and playing mah-jongg I start doing some research on my ancestors.  I am on several geneaology lists and check out every site they  mention.  

I am a MacDonald/McDonald and want to know which area of Scotland we came from as there are 3 areas that were McDonalds..  And I believe I’m getting close.

I finally received my father’s (Vincent MacDonald) death certificate this last weekend.  Found out he died in New Jersey but was buried in New Hampshire in the city he was born.  His birth certificate came in with the last name McDonald.   My aunt said he didn’t like McDonald so changed it to MacDonald.   

I now am back to my father’s grandfather (Malcolm McDonald) who was born around 1844 in Prince Edward Island.  I feel that I’m probably only a generation or two from Scotland now.  He married Amanda Crockett from Maine.

My grandfather, Arthur W McDonald was born in 1882 in Wakefield NH and I think his wife Leona Mary Hall was born in Sawyers River NH (This was on my fathers birth certif.) but the state has no record of her birth.   I think she ws born around 1884. 

It’s amazing  the difference in the census reports each time.  The 1900 census has the month year and state they were born in.  The 1910 and later just has the state.  The 1910 census says Leona was born in VT but the 1900 and 1920 says NH.

So the quest goes on.  It’s amazing all the lists out there.  ObitsCentral2,   http://cyndislist.com    http://geneaologybuff.com   and of course the fee based  Ancestry.com and Geneaology.com.  More will be coming later.  RootsWeb has specific town and county and state email lists.  They have been great.

This has been an interesting journey.  I’ve learned that my father married a second time and had more children so somewhere out there I have half brothers.    I might have found the marriage date of one of my great grandfather’s daughters and the sister of my grandmother.

Now if I were to further my education and get a degree it would be in Geneaology.