-From http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~levarre/macfam/macfam.htm:

Duncan and Margaret had at least three children, twins Findlay and Christian in 1751 and Margaret in 1745. In 1776, Findlay married Jean, daughter of John McDiarmid and Grisell Macnaughtan. He had moved to Kinchlacher on Loch Rannoch, a small town some 10 miles as the crow flies north of Dailchiorlarich. Maybe he went there for employment in connection with the Tighnalinn Barracks. He could have been a Tailor as one of his sons was of this profession, but that is only a guess. It was certainly a bleak place and in 1745, Loch Rannoch was so over-run with brigands extracting 'Black Meal' ( protection money ) from the inhabitants as insurance against being plundered and worse by them, that the government sent troops to restore law and order along the Loch. It took more than forty years to do so! Close by to where they lived was Rannoch Moor, one long miserable expanse of bog and morass overlooked by the snowy peaks of Glencoe and Glenetive. Statistically, infant deaths were one hundred times greater than they are now. Child mortality accounted for more than half the number of deaths in normal times and well over that amount in times of epidemics, e.g. Measles and Diphtheria, and in large towns, fifty per cent of all children died before they reached the age of five years. Findlay and Jean were blessed with a large family of 14 children, although at least two, Janet who was born in 1790 and Alexander born in 1791 died in infancy. However, two later children were given these names so one could presume that they had some significance to Findlay and Jean. The nearest hamlet of any size was at Kinloch Rannoch with it's 30 huts, 2 inns and 1 church. No doubt the family attended at least one of the fairs held there annually, in April and October for cattle and August for lambs, although it's quite likely the ladies interest would have been in the wares of the many hawkers, tinkers and traders that these fairs attracted. The first eight children were born in Kinchlacher and then the family seems to have moved again, returning to Glen Lyon. This time, they set up house in Easter Moar, about 5 miles east of their former home at Dailchiorlarich. There are no recorded Macnaughtan births in Dailchiorlarich after 1780 but Macnaughtan families were in plenty around Moar. Perhaps those of Dailchiorlarich had also decided to move eastward.. Their son Alexander, (the second one), born 1800, married Elizabeth Leisk, (sometimes spelled Lisk). She was daughter to William Leisk and Jane Pirie of Methlick in Aberdeenshire. I know Alexander travelled to Edinburgh as their first two children were born there so perhaps that is where they met. He may well have been there for some time if he went there to serve his Tailors apprenticeship, for that was to be his calling. Between 1834 and 1839, the family moved to Portnacraig, a mile south of Pitlochry, still in Perthshire. Sometime after the birth of their sixth child in 1848, they moved yet again, this time seven miles South-West to Pitnacree, where Alexander set up shop at no. 15 Tulloch Street. Next door was Pitnacree House, owned by a David and Elizabeth Burn with their three children. He was a retired India and China Merchant from Edinburgh and they had their own live-in Nurse, under-Nurse, Cook, Housemaids, Gardener and Coachman. Alexander's sister worked there as a servant until her marriage in 1819. It is interesting to speculate that one of Alexander's and Elizabeth's children was named William Irvine, neither of those names having previously appeared, but there was gentleman of that name in Kinchlacher who was about the same age as Alexander, so maybe they were friends. also Jessie Ann Stewart, their daughter of that name, had a name-sake in Easter Moar who married a John Macnaughtan and their children were named Findlay, Alexander and Duncan which is too much of a coincidence, although I am unable at present to establish a Family relationship. They appeared to have escaped the ravages of the great Cholera Epidemic of 1831 and 1849. But, one wonders what Alexander thought of the 1842 introduction of Income Tax, ( knowing the Scots canniness with the cash, I would presume that he wasn't exactly overjoyed!) I wonder also, if they were amongst the cheering crowds at Taymouth Castle, 10 miles from their home, welcoming Queen Victoria on her first visit to Scotland when great bonfires were lit on the hilltops and 40,000 lamps glowed in the castle grounds. The River Tay, alongside which they now lived, was and still is, one of the purest rivers in Scotland and also the longest and fastest flowing with an abundance of salmon and trout. - From http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~levarre/macfam/macfam.htm:


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