The Hebrides

For a while I have been wanting to add a little more Information on my Scottish Grandmother Rachel Ferguson.

I do not know a lot about her but I do know she was born in a beautiful place, on the Island of South Harris in the Outer Hebrides. A very remote and lonely place it would seem to me.

In an earlier Post I remarked on how my Grandfather had said she was descended from the King's of Norway.

To write about the History of those Islands would take a lot of study on my part in order to present it in an accurate way. So I will leave that to the historians. Many places to read about Scottish History on the Internet.


Her Mother was Catherine Morrison daughter of Donald Morrison and Mary McKinnon. Catherine was the third child of their nine children. Her Grand Father is listed as a Crofter (Farmer) and a Fisherman in different Census Records.

Her Father is listed as John Ferguson on her birth Certificate. A Fishing Boat Captain She had a brother Roderick Ferguson it lists them both as illegitimate on their Birth Certificates. I suppose John could have been married to someone else in another place because I have never been able to find a marriage for him to Catherine.

As late as the 1901 Census Catherine lived on the Island of South Harris. They were quite uneducated people on the Islands and the Church there may have only had a circuit preacher visiting once in awhile.


My Mother always said of Rachel that she was a lovely kind lady who always treated her well. My daughter is named after her because I always loved the name.
More Pics of the beaches there, it still looks the same way today. I think that Rachel would have grown up in a cottage much like the one in Pic.