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Many thanks Traciey..........needles and haystacks certainly come to mind.

There is, of course, Aunt Kate to consider along with Donald and Ishbel.....and I wonder if MacLeod maybe wasn't Diane's real surname, but one she added. That name Leslie has some significance......if only we knew what!!!

I'm no good with census, but will look into the Planisker School query.


Thanks again........

Hi Cyn and all, here are a few censuses that I found with siblings Donald & Isabella/Bella living together. These are only MacLeod/McLeod children. All the MacLeod/McLeod censuses have been sent to another kind member so she can look at them in greater detail.

I also have a list of all Donald and Isabella/Bella with various surnames
to cross reference the data numbers and I have started looking at them too.

Below is the few census details, I have included families in Lochs as this area was nearby Stornoway as it was the nearest postal town and while searching Scotland's People Lochs is included although back then I think it was 8 miles apart.

1911 Census - 8 Calbost, Lochs, all born parish of Lochs
Angus McLeod 36 Handloom weaver/Fisherman
Effie McLeod 32 -Married 1yr, children born alive 1, children still living 1
Donald McLeod 8 school
Isabella 7 school
Angus 4months

1911 Census - 10 Balallan, Lochs, all born parish of Lochs
Robert MacLeod 59 Crofter
Mary Macleod 40 -Married 20yrs, children born alive 10, children still living 8
Catherine MacLeod 16 Crofters daughter
Kenneth MacLeod 14 School
Margaret MacLeod 12 School
Donald MacLeod 10 School
Donaldina 8 School
Isabella 6 School
Alexander 4

1911 Census - Vatisker Road, No number, Stornoway
All born Stornoway
William McLeod 50 Fisherman
Mary McLeod 40 -Married 24yrs, 10 children born alive, children still living 9
Angus McLeod 23 Fisherman
Donald McLeod 12 School
Murdo McLeod 7 School
John McLeod 5
Malcolm J McLeod 4
Mary McLeod 15 Domestic Servant
Bella McLeod 3


As you can see its a needle in a haystack but I think anything is worth a shot to rule things outs. Age ranges I have searched is Isabella/Bella age 1-10 yrs and Donald's 6-14yrs. Possibly need to widen the search to cover other areas at some point but for now I will stick with Stornoway.

Any other suggestions/questions please ask I do tend to wander off on searches and come up with zilch.

Also just a wee note I came across while reading about schooling in Stornoway. Someone writes about their family research while living in Lochs which I believe is about 8 miles from Stornoway that in the early 1920's during the economic depression very few pupils could afford to go to the secondary school in Stornoway (Nicolson Institute) and went to Planisker School, Marvig. If Diane(thats a big if) was living in Lochs maybe this was the school she attended.

Nudging for Evelyn

Thanks Traciey.....you're a gem...... :-D


It was FBG who searched the census when it first came out - if you remember, we were all waiting with baited breath to see if anything came out of it...........some hope!

Ok so I concentrated on MacLeod/McLeod first and found no Ishbel's, Sunday names must of been used. I searched many variants and I found some Isabella's and Bella's. No Isobel's or Ishobel's that were children in Stornoway. I never found anything that jumped out at me and never found any stray children (I didn't think I would to be honest, think Diane was either in India or England for 1911 census). I crossed matched the data numbers with the Donald's and found a few siblings living together. I will post the censuses next week hopefully, just busy with work, family etc at the moment and I'm busy packing for a trip this weekend but I just can't help myself when its comes to looking for Diane. I will also check all the other surnames for Donald & Isabella/Bella to see if any of them lived together. Its a needle in a haystack stuff but worth a shot. I'm still working on the MacLeod neighbours of the Goddard-Fenwicks and following other things through :-)

Sorry can't remember off hand who was checking the Scotland 1911 Census when it came out but searches were made for Diane and then Donald and Ishbel MacLeod together but found nothing. I only did a search on SP I haven't viewed them there's far too many it would cost 205 credits just to view all the Donald Macleod/McLeod's to see if there's a Donald & Ishbel together. To find a Donald and Ishbel together a separate search would need to be done on Ishbel's of Stornoway maybe a few years younger than Donald and then go through every single one to match up the surname and census data number. I'll have a bash but can't promise I'll come up with anything :-)

Did any have sisters named Ishbel or have we already been down that route?


:-S :-D

Just for information the 1911 Census for Stornoway has 163 boy's called Donald aged between 6-10yrs, 25 of them have the surname MacLeod and 16 of them the surname McLeod. We would expect some of these Donald's would be at the Nicolson Institute in 1918/19.

Well done Cynthia, everything is worth a shot!

Message sent! :-D

Good thinking both. I will get in touch with my contact up in Stornoway and see if he thinks it is feasible or not.


:-D

I had thought about that Vanessa but the problem with that is there will be lots of siblings called Donald & Ishbel at the Nicolson Institute (Donald & Ishbel were very common names in that area at the time) a search would need to be taken of all the Donald & Ishbels around 1918/1919 assuming Diane's year of birth is correct she would of went to school there aged 12/13 years. Another thing is we can't assume Donald and Ishbel had the surname MacLeod. But it is worth a shot if someone can search the school registers for those two years as we know Diane was supposed to have played out in the peat fields with her cousins Donald and Ishbel when she was around that age, as Evelyn remembers her mother telling her that.

I had a thought about a different approach to the Nicolson Institute.

One would assume that Diane would attend the same school as Donald & Ishbel? Is it possible to find their enrolments, with address & locate any others enrolled from that same address?

If there is, as appears to be, some doubt about Diane's name, any like addresses could be x-ref with Donald & Kate's children and any female 'leftovers' investigated?

Thanks Vanessa.......I'm pretty sure that hasn't been spotted before.....wonder which Robert it is - given that we have looked at so many.... :-S


I've been side tracked a little with a brickwall of my own which has just been demolished - it took about 3 years of work so, hopefully, one day we may just solve DLM's mystery....... :-D :-D

I found the below crossing for a Robert MacLeod from Slonaway(!). Still doesn't help in terms of finding Diane's birth

Robert Macleod, "United States, Border Crossings from Canada to United States, 1895-1956"
Name: Robert Macleod
Arrival Date: Mar 1911
Arrival Port: Detroit, Michigan,
Age: 27
Birth Year (Estimated): 1884
Birth Date:
Birthplace: Russhire Slonaway,
Birth Country: Scotland
Gender: Male
Race: Scotch
Last Place of Residence:
Accompanied by Name:
Departure Date:
Departure Port:
Departure Contact Name:
Arrival Contact Name:
Ship Name:
Airline:
Photograph Included:
Affiliate Publication Title: Manifests of Passengers Arriving in the St. Albans, VT, District through Canadian Pacific and Atlantic Ports, 1895-1954
Affiliate Publication Number: M1464
Affiliate Film Number: 148

Have just found that the death was mentioned around pg 103, but doesn't appear to be followed p, as the assumption was that the car accident would most likely be in fort George. But as Diane was 'sent' to Stornoway and later lived in Wandsworth it may be worthy of further investigation??
Sorry I don't have subs to investigate further at his point in time :-(

Might tie up with this guy in 1911:
Household MACLEOD, Robert 1857 54 M Wandsworth London

And 1901:
Household MACLEOD, Robert 1856 45 M Wandsworth London

>>> EDIT: As above, already discussed & discounted on Pg 4

Have we considered this death??

Surname First name(s) Age District Vol Page
Deaths Sep 1911 (>99%)
Macleod Robert 54 Wandsworth 1d 537

Clearly Diane had connections with Wandsworth so a maybe??

EDIT: FBG discounted this one on pg 4!

Have spoken to Evelyn and, as far as she remembers, nothing was ever said about DLM belonging to any clubs/groups. Also, Evelyn has had a letter published in the Gazette and, as may be guessed, no response. :-( :-(

Have spoken to Evelyn and, as far as she remembers, nothing was ever said about DLM belonging to any clubs/groups. Also, Evelyn has had a letter published in the Gazette and, as may be guessed, no response. :-( :-(