McAninch Surname and Robertsons in Clan Donnachaidh? |
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Could the McAninch surname have come from Robertsons in Perthshire, northern Scotland? |
After 1745, after the Scots lost the big battle at Culloden, some of the Robertsons changed |
their name to Inches. In 1933, Clan Donnachaidh [see Note 1] was apparently prepared to |
accept “McAninch” into their Clan Society, according to the letter transcribed below. |
George S. McAninch was born in 1901, in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania , and also lived in |
Detroit, Michigan; south-western New York State; and later moved to Colorado in the 1950’s. |
George died in 1972, and is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, Denver, Colorado. One of his |
sons, Harold S. McAninch, currently lives in Sun City, Arizona, and Harold has kept the |
original of this 1933 letter that his father George received from Clan Donnachaidh. |
The 1933 Letter from Clan Donnachaidh |
Clan Donnachaidh |
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Private |
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[1] |
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Glendevon |
{ Dollar |
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[2] |
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{ Scotland |
8.7.33 [8 July 1933] |
Dear Mr. McAninch, |
[3] |
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I regret delay, but am now answering in place of Miss Robertson, who has been |
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pretty worried of late, & unfit for much. |
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Your name is most uncommon -- to me, at least -- and, as you say, may belong to |
[4] |
the Robertsons of |
[5] |
in or after the '45, to Inches. Yours would be even more a good name to hide under. |
[6] |
Of course you know there is an old western Clan MacInnes from MacAongas (Angus) |
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which is almost pronounced as broadly as "Innes", the 'g' being slurred over. |
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I have only the evidence of a family or two named Inches as to their tradition, |
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and strange to say, they are found in the midst of the Robertsons of Perthshire, |
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near Dunkeld -- not Inverness where the cadet family Robertson of Inshes owned |
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the land of that name -- and their head went under the name of Baron Inches |
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(of Ledaig – now keep this name in mind, as old Miss Inches, who alone knew, |
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is long dead, & I alone (I believe, at least) in the Clan Society have this from her). |
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She did not know -- nor had she said herself -- they were from the R’s [Robertsons] |
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of Inches, in Invernessshire; merely that "they were Robertsons before the year 1745; |
[6] |
& took the name of Inches to hide their identity." |
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Mac-an-Inch, would be good Gaelic for the name, as you say; and this lady was born |
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where the Gaelic was partly dying out -- so I have heard – in certain families, though |
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near each other, so they might have changed to Inches. |
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McAninch Family History NL, v.XIII.n.1 January 2005 Copyright Frank McAninch page 2005-07 |