Putting the Pieces together Piece by Piece.....

One blade of grass at a TIME. One heavy, stormy breeze. One calm swell breathing in an out. I have been here for one and half months.

The pieces begin by listening to the people, to the land, to the sea.

The People – I had an opportunity to attend two gatherings at the local hall. The first one was the story of fishing, the history of what was once a thriving fishery. The salmon were abundant and wild. This seemed to be around the 1980’s. From what I know through the experience of working on a salmon fishing trawler on the west coast of Vancouver Island, around that time. This was also when that fishery started to be in decline. The wild salmon were being affected by what was going on the land. The rivers and streams, the place they spawn was becoming polluted, built upon all in the move towards development.

So now this piece shows this may have been a global issue.

The Land - Life on Mull was hard, living from the land didn’t seem to be very sustainable. In the past they fished, they harvested seaweed.

The other gathering was to “remember”…. The Drowning of the Harvesters….. 200 years ago a boat of 42 set out to the mainland to try and bring in some way of living. They went there to harvest, however on the way a steamboat crashed into them and all were lost except for four survivors.

The hall was filled with local people sharing their thoughts. This was put on by the Ross of Mull Historical society. It was Rosie’s father who founded this.

Now I had done a wee bit of research prior to coming to Mull and read an amazing book by Jo Currie “Mull, the Island and It’s People”. It’s the story of landlords, tacksman, and cottars. She relates how the emigration that led to the disappearance of most of the islands native population during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries played out.

My mom who born as a McLean, which makes me one too has ancestors that came from the Isle of Mull. We were able to go back to 1791- 1876. Lachlin McLean married Catherine (Kate) Morison. We knew people and dates but didn’t have a place.

So this is where it began. Where oh where do we go from here.

Well we knew from this point forward. Lachlin and Catherine ended up in Cape Breton somewhere around 1820 when the clearances occurred.

They had a son Hugh “the Miller” McLean. It is these points” “the Miller” and Catherine’s maiden name “Morison” that took us on a journey to Penmore Mill near Dervaig. We met with Ian and Pat Morison, Ian was born at the Mill and we had a lovely conversation. Could we be related…….hard to know but we continue to put the pieces together.