The main ancestral family lines connected to us are described here, and their connection with the current generations is shown in the simplified pedigree chart below, which is followed by the full Ferguson and Macdonald pedigrees. Clicking on any of the family names in these charts will take you to the relevant person's individual page.

Within each of the family sections below you will also find descendancy charts. Within each chart you can click on any person's entry to go directly to their personal page.

Various icons are used in the Surname Index and individual Person pages to indicate relationships and other items of interest. You can find more detail about these in Icons Explained .

Family Relationships - see also the full Ferguson and Macdonald pedigree charts following

Fergus(s)on

As noted in the main page, our earliest proven ancestor is Thomas Fergusson of Moulin. It seems most likely that his father was another Thomas and his mother Janet Conacher.

Family stories include talk of a connection to the infamous Rob Roy McGregor, but this is a tenuous link, and occurred a generation later due to the marriage of Thomas' son John Fergusson to Christina McGregor.

Of more interest is the curious story about John, proposed by his sons Alexander (1822-1896) and John (1830-1902) when making a submssion to the 'Records of the Clan Fergusson' (pub. 1895). They stated "He was taken from his parents (Thomas Fergusson and Christina Douglas) when a child by General Fergusson of Dunfallandy, and educated there at his expense, he being considered the nearest male heir to the head of the clan. Why he never became so I cannot say. He left Dunfallandy shortly after leaving school, and learned the building trade under his father."

McInnes

This line has so far only been traced back to Martin McInnes of Tobermory in the late 1700s.

McColl

This line has so far only be traced back to Hugh McColl of Ardchattan. And so far nothing spicy like a connection to the Red Comyn or the Appin murders.....

Macdonald

A difficult line to research, given our oldest known relative's common name and his parent's early deaths. Nevertheless, Alexander Macdonald had an extremely varied life - from being a self-taught 'surgeon' on a Scottish whaler to missionary life in Samoa, before settling in New Zealand.

Morris

Strangely, a direct ancestor on the Morris line has the name 'Fergusson' - although it is unclear why, as there is no apparent connection with our Fergussons. The Morris' were a seafaring family long before Arthur William Morris bought a ship in partnership with his brother James and sailed to New Zealand to establish a family in Dunedin. His many shipping investments eventually formed part of what became the Union Shipping Co.

Moodie

The Moodie spelling has been varied (as many family names were) and this line was originally recorded as Mudie. Another family with strong seafaring links, whose members suffered more than the normal number of deaths abroad from shipwrecks and disease.

The claim to fame here is the connection to Robert Frost, the American 'poet laureate'. His mother was Isabella Moodie, an orphan who had travelled from her native Scotland, aged 12, to be brought up by her banker uncle in Ohio.

Unfortunately, the family story that one of the Moodie men was the first Captain of the crack tea clipper 'Cutty Sark' is pure fabrication. Her captain was born on the other side of Scotland to a totally different family, and the men worked for different shipping companies. Checking these basic facts should have killed this myth much sooner!

Forsaith

The origins of the Forsyth name are somewhat unclear, given that the claimed connection to a French 'Forsyth de Fronsac' family is totally fraudulent. There does appear to have been migration from Scotland through Ireland to Canada and the US, although the name has been variously wrought as Forsyth, Forsayth, Forsayeth, Forsaith and other spellings.

It is possible one of the ex-Scots Forsaiths moved from Ireland to Liverpool and established the English branch, but there are also Forsaith families scattered down the east coast of England.

The most travelled of all our Forsaiths would undoubtedly be Thomas Spencer Forsaith, who had a chequered history - he ran away to sea to avoid the family drapery business, returned to London to marry, went to New Zealand very early in its settlement to exploit the natural timber resources, became heavily involved in early New Zealand life as businessman turned politician, was almost the country's first Prime Minister, then became a minister and travelled the world (including a stint as Presbyterian minister of Venice) before settling in Sydney, where he established a church in Parramatta.

Blomfield

There are multiple well-known Blomfield/Bloomfield families in England; but this line commences with Stephen Blomfield, father of the non-conformist minister Ezekiel Blomfield, who published several works, including 'A General View of the World, Geographical, Historical and Philosohpical; on a Plan entirely new', but it was somewhat scathingly reviewed.

His printers posthumously published his 'Philosophy of History' to assist finances, but the family remained poor and not surprisingly the daughters almost unanimously sought a better life elsewhere - five sisters emigrated and four may be found amongst the Macdonald, Clarke, Ludbrook and Matthews pioneers of New Zealand.