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Clan Cholla Genealogies - MacColl, McColl and McCall

So it was a chart from my Great-grandmother Etoyl Montgomery McCall, that was given to her by someone passing through town asking about the McCall surname, and then copied by my mother before I was born that got me started on the genealogy trail of the McCall / McColl family line.


Click to See a Larger Image

This single photocopy pushed me on to find the rest of the charts, because it looked like it was part of a much larger charting of the McCall family line. I couldn’t find any of these charts in the Genealogy Library in Salt Lake City, UT, so I posted a note online at genealogy.com in search for them. I also began researching the names on the piece of the chart I had in my possession and posted some of my research online. While researching I discovered a link to the inventory of the Manuscripts Department at the Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This link outlined an inventory of the McCall Family Papers that contained genealogy for the McColl family of Marlboro County, SC. I called the library and ordered the collection in on microfilm.


When I recieved the film, I was excited to see that it contained the entire collection of charts, and solved the mystery about it’s origins and author. The charts began with a letter that said the following (and were in the same handwriting of the original chart):

Dec 11, 1990

Connie -
The clan genealogies were prepared by Duncan McColl of Bennettsville and Hugh McColl of Scotland sometime in the twenties or early thirties. Duncan McColl of Bennettsville did the ground work. A lawyer and prominent citizen of Bennettsville. His son now about 70 lives on South Main Street in Bennettsville.

John “Gurly” is my line and I believe to be basically correct. I do not know if SC/3 (Referring to the numbering on the charts) is correct but believe it probably is. John “Gurly”s son Malcolm was supposed to have married a Reynolds and died without issue. According to descendents consensus this is correct.

I am writing this from memory my records are in such a mess it will take much digging to be more specific but will try if there is any point upon which you may desire clarification. I will try. I believe these people - the ones going to Lowndes County, Alabama came out of Mountain Creek in Richmond County, North Carolina. I think I remember a land grant to a Paul McColl. Buried in Hayneville, Lowndes Co., Alabama is Nellie McRae widow of Daniel McColl who died in his mill pond on Mountain Creek about 1820 I think. Ellerby Springs is near Mountain Creek. Many of these McColl families passed through Marlboro County - stayed for years in fact - on their way south.

The first McColls on Mountain Creek was old John and his wife Catherine who came over about 1175 on the Jupiter of Larne from Appen Argylshire Scotland. The old cemetary in the middle of the woods has only two readable tombstones, the last one 1857 old John’s daughter Catharine and her husband red Hugh McColl - Secretary to Harmony Presbyterian Church record still in existence.

On second thought - please do not accept SC/3 as fact although it probably is. I cannot prove it either way. I accept SC/9 as basically factual because through the years it has proven so. The same opportunity has not been the same with SC/3. Some information in the History of Marlboro County is probably true but needs to be accepted with care.

John “Gurly” was alive thru the census of 1860 living with son Hugh’s widow - Dollie Cameron having probably died some time before. Descendants of Hugh erected a new tombstone to John “Gurly” in Stewartsville Cemetery. The old sandstone marker having become unreadable. How they knew it was his grave I do not know but they believe. The McColl cemetery two miles west of Clio has Hugh and Malcolm and Janet Cameron sister to Dollie and her husband a grandson of old John of Mountain Creek.

With Best Regards
OJ McColl

I also found this note in the same archives originally written to Hugh McColl in 1988. I don’t seem to have printed out the name of the letter’s author, but a portion of it gives more insight to the origin of these charts.

A Hugh McColl came from Appin sometime in the 20’s to the U.S. looking up McColls who had come over here - there were some in the North (Philadelphia) that he visited. Uncle D gave him the use of his car to look up the ones in Marlboro County and that Hugh McColl planned to incorporate what he got in a genealogicial McColl survey. He died during World War II in an automobile accident in Scotland on his way to work (or from) in an aluminum factory.

After the war, Aunt Rhett and Eleanor and later Mary Lynch, and Robin and I went to see his widow who lived at Ballachulish. When we were there (1966) her house was rented out and she was living in a trailer and we stood out in front of her house overlooking the Loch and the Pop of Glencoe. Mary Lynch who was there afterward said Mrs. MaColl said she was embarrassed not to ask us in.

I have posted scanned copies of all the charts online so they can be reference by other McCall, McColl, MacColl surname researchers:

Thanks to all of those in the past who participated in the research that created these charts - I know that I have found that these have been a great resource in giving me the directions to look for more specific information. Since my line is from SC/10.2 that’s where most of my genealogy research has been from and I can answer questions on.

Fran Stewart is also from this same chart (John of Mountain Creek), and she and her family have done extensive research that she has put online at McColl-Name.com.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 5th, 2006 at 2:14 pm and is filed under McCall / McColl. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

23 Responses to “Clan Cholla Genealogies - MacColl, McColl and McCall”

  1. Robin McColl Says:
    May 13th, 2007 at 4:32 pm

    Thanks for this blog. It got my pulses racing because I have been trying to get access to the Hugh G McColl charts. My McColl line goes back to Appin - a John and Catherine McColl of Appin (b. around 1780). This information was received in a letter from Hugh G McColl received the Clan Cholla History & Genealogy Committee dated 15 August 1929. The letterhead includes the name of the USA member of the Committee, D.D. McColl, Bennettsville, SC. I have been unable to find out where the papers of the committee are held. I can send you a copy of the letter if it is of any interest. Unfortunately, as far as I can see none of may McColl’s appear in the charts you have provided, so I suppose what I am looking for are the charts numbered C1……26 or more that deal with the lines of the McColls in Scotland (as opposed to the SC series). Can you throw any light on the C series? Once again thanks for your blog. yours Rob

  2. Stuart McColl Says:
    May 30th, 2007 at 5:32 am

    Robin,

    I too am keen to find more of the Clan Cholla charts. I only have the C.1 set of charts which I can let you have a copy of - they relate to a Mull branch of the family, descended from Ian Ban Mac Cholla who came to Mull from Glasdrum, Appin around 1700. As far as I can gather there is a C series and a D series (apart from the SC series) - I’m not sure what the distinction is.

    I don’t know if the original charts still exist - it would be a shame if they had been lost. I saw a posting somewhere which suggested that someone has them but isn’t letting anyone else see them - I’ll see if I can find a link to this.

  3. Stuart McColl Says:
    May 31st, 2007 at 4:16 am

    Further to my previous comment, I realise that the link I mentioned is possibly part of a thread initiated by Robin: http://genforum.genealogy.com/mccoll/messages/449.html

    Incidentally, Brad: thank you for this very interesting blog.

    Stuart

  4. Robin McColl Says:
    June 26th, 2007 at 1:21 am

    Thanks, Stuart. Rather than take up your kind offer of C1 I’ll carry on my inquiries about where the HGM papers are. I’ve drawn a blank with the Appin Historical Society although they have been generally helpful so I may go back to a contact in the Stewart Society. No reply yet from the Friends of Appin, Australia Branch. I’ll post any progress I make at this site.
    Yes, I did read the rather disappointing message about the person that threatened to destroy them if he had any more pestering.
    Best wishes, Rob

  5. Caroline M. Miller Says:
    September 23rd, 2007 at 7:04 pm

    Thank you Brad for all the information you have shared. I have only begun my own research and you have given me a great start. I come from the SC/6 lineage. Thanks for the charts and other links. Caroline

  6. Grace McColl Gibson Says:
    December 11th, 2007 at 5:23 pm

    I just found this blog and I have enjoyed reading it. As you probably know I have the 10 sheets of S.C. Clan Cholla Genealogies that belonged to my Father and Mother, LIla and Helon McColl of Clio, S. C. I am still trying to find information on John Thomas McColl’s ancestors. He was from the John “Gurley” McColl Branch on Chart SC-9. I would like to find who his parents were in Scotland. He was about 17 years old when he landed in Wilmington, N. C. Any help contact me at gmgibson@maralboroelectric.net

  7. Timothy McColl Hawkins Says:
    January 26th, 2008 at 8:14 am

    I am looking for the parents of my McColl ancestor. John McColl of Appin who at the age of 10 sailed out of Greenock to Charleston S.C. in about 1787. He sailed over alone as I can find no other McColls in the family history coming with him. He married Mary Campbell, who with her family came over on the same boat. Clan Donald geneology says it was the Mary Currie they sailed on. I have no real proof of this and it does not match dates that is part of family history. Any help would be appreciated. John’s was a shipwright by trade.

  8. Duncan Neil MacColl Says:
    March 8th, 2008 at 12:48 pm

    I have family tree for MacColl C 3 starting with John m issue John and Duncan m issue Donald m Betsy Campbell and Paul (dubh) m Anne MacColl my branch of the family Paulwas shepherd to of MonzieCampbell his wife sister to Rev Paul MacColl they had 8 children of who John born 1815 m Isabella Campbell they had 8 children of whom Duncan my Grand Father m Anne Haggart they had 6children of whom my father m Annie Lochhead Ferguson the chart shows other branches of the family and I would be happy to provide particulars to anyone interested.
    Duncan N MacColl, Glasgow.

  9. Frank McGonigal Says:
    March 9th, 2008 at 6:26 pm

    Hi
    I have a copy of two pages of Clan Cholla Genealogies.
    They are Sheet C1..and start with John MacCOLL ( Ian Ban) ..came from Glasdrum Appin with Col.Campbell of Knock.bd. at Knock,Mull.

    My line is D 28 …my gr.gr.gr.grandfather was Duncan MacCOLL,his wife Catherine McKAY.

    Frank McGonigal Ont.Canada

  10. Frank McGonigal Says:
    March 9th, 2008 at 6:34 pm

    Forgot to say that my Duncan MacCOLL and Catherine McKAY were born abt 1775,possibly not on Mull ..but they lived on Mull and had some children there.
    Duncan was also reported to have been a corporal in the army or militia.

    I have a hand drawn tree similar to the one on this site of the descendants.

  11. Morag Sinclair (nee MacColl) Says:
    March 16th, 2008 at 7:26 am

    I am from branch D42 and have 2 lines of family trees from this branch. Our MacColls settled in Ardnamurchan, Scotland at Swordle circ. 1780 and were cleared from Swordle in 1843 relocated at Portuiark and Sanna ( still in Ardnamurchan). I have 2 of the original clan cholla society books and a number of other interesting papers about the MacColls of Mull. My understanding is that the Clan Cholla papers may be in the Mitchell Library Glasgow

  12. Caroline M. Miller Says:
    May 1st, 2008 at 1:28 am

    I descend from the SC/6 lineage through Daniel R. & Delinda Rogers line. I have similar charts with much of the same information…charts by Francine Rose of Sawyer, Ark. Is anyone familiar with her? She interviewed my gr.mother & aunt & sent the charts after they were compiled.

  13. Jonathan McColl Says:
    May 4th, 2008 at 4:01 am

    Thank you for a most interesting blog. I had posted that disappointing news of the danger to the McColl Society papers as a result of my enquiries in the 1980s. The possessor was quite firm at the time. Afterwards I dropped hints in some circles hoping a softly-softly approach might catchee monkee and would be enormously pleased if the papers had made their way to the Mitchell. I’ve started PDFing my complete collection (of photocopies I’m afraid) of the CCC journal with a view to putting them online later this year. The series letters as I nderstood them included C = Canada, SC = South Carolina and S = Scotland but as I couldn’t get at the papers I couldn’t be sure of all of the codes. My grandfather was C29 and I inherited very little from him (one CCC journal and the Society badge) so have merely reconstructed as much of tree as I could myself.

  14. Sally McPhee Says:
    May 12th, 2008 at 6:54 pm

    I recently looked at the Clan Cholla Journals held in the State Library of Victoria. Some, particularly early ones were missing. However from another McColl descendant I know I fit with C1 who settled at Ledmore Mull. I come in from John McPhee m Mary McColl whose father was Archibald McColl and mother Janet/Jessie MacGregor.

    I will be visiting Scotland (from Aus) later this year and expect to get to the Mitchell library, but I would be interested in any information anyone has on the MacColls on Mull as well
    Sally McPhee, Brisbane Australia

  15. Jonathan McColl Says:
    May 21st, 2008 at 11:45 am

    I contacted the Mitchell in Glasgow and have just received this reply from the Archivist:

    “I am writing to you in response to your e-mail enquiring about the McColl Society papers that you believe were deposited at the Mitchell Library.

    Unfortunately I have not found any reference to the papers within our finding aids. I have also spoken to my colleagues in the Special Collections side of our department but they have not found anything either.”

  16. Jonathan McColl Says:
    May 25th, 2008 at 1:29 am

    But perhaps the University of Glasgow? http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/manuscripts/search/resultsn.cfm?NID=3865&RID=

  17. Jonathan McColl Says:
    June 14th, 2008 at 1:50 am

    I have converted my set of photocopied Journals into PDFs, if only I were not missing no 25 = Vol 9’s only issue from about 1941. If anyone were willing to lend me an original or set of photocopies (including outside and inside covers) I would repay them with a CD of the complete set. I have not done anything marvellous, just made a series of 10-12MB files. They are not yet saleable and although I still wish to OCR and index them, I realise that something now is better than everything never. The magazines may be found in several libraries—I found them originally in the Cambridge University library and I’m sure the Mitchell has them too. Probably most of the copyright libraries have them.

    My thoughts of what the tree coding meant (eg C29, my grandfather) were naïve at best. Perhaps SC did stand for South Carolina, but C and D certainly did not mean Canada and Somewhere Else! I have not studied the journals deeply but I cannot find any description of the tree coding except this sentence at the head of every listing of members: “The letters and numbers shown against members’ names refer to the file and page of the member’s genealogy in our records.”

    Here is the list of journals, the gap being the only one missing from my set. The original volume numbering on the cover with an issue number within each volume changed at Volume 7 when it became whole numbers, and when production became disrupted by the War the numbers within each volume became very irregular. I do not believe that any issue after no 34 was published but I would be pleased to be proved wrong. I’ve also made a consolidated Table of Contents (but still missing no 25 of course) and will post it in GenForum and (if you are interested Brad) here.

    No Vol-No Date Pages
    1 1-1 Jan 32 1-24
    2 1-2 Jul 32 25-40
    3 1-3 Jan 33 41-60
    4 2-1 May 33 1-20
    5 2-2 Sep 33 21-40
    6 2-3 Jan 34 41-60
    7 3-1 May 34 1-20
    8 3-2 Sep 34 21-40
    9 3-3 Jan 35 41-72
    10 4-1 May 35 1-20
    11 4-2 Sep 35 21-44
    12 4-3 Jan 36 45-60
    13 5-1 May 36 1-24
    14 5-2 Sep 36 25-48
    15 5-3 Jan 37 49-80
    16 6-1 May 37 1-20
    17 6-2 Sep 37 21-40
    18 6-3 Jan 38 41-72
    19 7-1 May 38 1-20
    20 7-2 Sep 38 21-44
    21 7-3 Jan 39 45-76
    22 8-1 May 39 1-20
    23 8-2 Sep 39 21-32
    24 8-3 Jan 40 33-44
    25 9
    26 10 Dec 42 1-16
    27 10 Dec 43 17-32
    28 10 May 45 34-56
    29 11 Jan 46 1-24
    30 11 Sep 46 25-44
    31 11 Jan 47 45-76
    32 11 May 47 77-93
    33 11 Sep 48 95-117
    34 12 Sep 51 1-32

    No 9 includes an enrolment form, so does no 29. No 20 includes a 1935 news clipping that was tucked in the magazine that I copied. No 14 includes the tartan sample in colour, and also in colour is the bookplate in No 20 and the Hydro’s arms in No 34.

  18. Arthur MacColl Says:
    June 15th, 2008 at 12:53 pm

    Are any of the Clan MacColl Society papers available on the web?
    Also, what is the history of the society.

  19. Rob McColl Says:
    June 21st, 2008 at 11:39 pm

    That’s terrific work, Jonathon, and thanks for your information on the Mitchell labrary. It will be marvellous if you can put the CC Society material up on the Web. I’ve just had contact from Heather Butler, president of the Australian branch of the Friends of Appin Soc. and she advises that they hold some of the old McColl journals.

    I have corresponded with Brad and he is happy to help in whatever way he can to make the charts available. He was thinking about doing a mass email about this when time allows.

  20. Clive Ronneberg Says:
    June 26th, 2008 at 3:45 am

    Would Frank McGonigal and Sally McPhee please email me at ran-black@pacific.net.au regarding their posts above. My wife, Helen McColl, ancestry tree is thought to include Duncan McColl and Catherine McKay born about 1775. Helen’s ancestry tree also contains Mary McColl who married Duncan McPhee in 1860 at Muswellbrook, NSW, Australia.

  21. heather butler Says:
    June 27th, 2008 at 12:32 am

    AS convenor of the Friends of Appin Society, I have collected many family histories of members. I will endeavour to get all copies of newsletters on my website, but I do lead a busy life. I am very proud of my McCole heritage. I can add to the John-Sarah McColl lineage on the site. Two members of that family who lived in Appin, Meg McColl(wife on Ronnie) and her son, Johnnie McColl, have passed away in the last year, as has Lady Stewart of Appin, mother of the clan chief and Bachuil, head of the Livingston clan (a sept of the Stewarts of Appin).
    I have some photocopies of the Journals and have seen them in the Mitchell. Sadie Hogg, one of our life members, stayed with HG McColl as a girl. I will tell members at our AGM in Melbourne on Sunday 29th June about this site

  22. Frank McGonigal Says:
    August 12th, 2008 at 6:40 pm

    Hi
    I found this on the UK National Archives web site..the info is very similar to what I have on my gr.gr.gr.grandfather Duncan MacCOLL except for the birth date
    To get a copy of this info is going to cost me 30 pounds.
    Just wondering if anyone has a copy of the info below or can relate to him.
    *****
    Certificates of service for men discharged between 1787 and 1813,
    DUNCAN MACCOLL alias DUNCAN MCCOLL Born ARGYLE, Argyllshire Served in 132nd Foot Regiment; 42nd Foot Regiment; 70th Foot Regiment; West Fencibles
    Discharged aged 44 after 11 years 8 months of service..
    The only problem would be the age at discharge ..44..that would have him born around 1754..I estimate that my Duncan would have been born around 1775 ( His wifes birth date)..but I don’t have a birth or death record for him.
    Thanks
    Frank McGonigal Ont.Canada… E Mail frank017@sympatico.ca

  23. Mairi Craven Says:
    October 19th, 2008 at 3:29 pm

    A reply to Heather Butler. Johnnie MacColl who died last year in Appin was Meg MacColl’s brother-in-law not her son. I am the daughter of Una MacColl, who died in 2006, Johnnie’s sister and have been doing some family history over the past few years. Hope this helps to keep your tree up to date.

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