In 1742 a boy called John Cameron was born to a farmer and his wife in, or very close to Inverness. The Farmer, George Cameron and his Wife Elspet Fraser already had a Daughter Isobel and went on to have 8 further children ending up with 6 daughters and 4 sons, John being the eldest of the boys.

 

We will return to this family later as they have a particular significance, being the earliest ancestors where the family tree is backed up by DNA evidence. At seven generations before me this is about as far back as the standard DNA tests can usefully get. Further than this and any matches are so tenuous as to be little better than chance associations.

 

The 1740's is also the point when there was a legal requirement for proper parish records to be kept. Prior to this the Parish Records ( known as the OPR) tend to be of poor quality and frequently contain little useful information.  A record saying John and Wee Elspet were married June 1721 does not get one a long way given that half of Inverness were called John or Elspet at the time.  All that goes before 1742 is what I am calling the Early Years.

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What limited information is available would seem to agree with the early tree so I have included it out of interest but it has to be somewhat speculative, take with a pinch of salt.

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The first Camerons at Granish farm were John Cameron 1765-1835 and his wife Elspet Cumming, this being the same John Cameron as mentioned above. John his Father, also John and Grandfather George Cameron 1712-1782 were all born in, or close to Inverness where they farmed. How and why they came to move to Strathspey I don't know. By the time that John & Elspet married John & family were at Caigin in the parish of Alvie.  I am not certain but this may be an alternative spelling for Caggan, a remote farm at the far western end of the Dulnan Valley.

 

George's father John M Cameron came from Lochaber, the traditional Clan Cameron heartland and died in exile in France in 1782.  He most likely reason for the exile is that he backed the Jacobite cause in the 1745 rebellion.

 

John M Cameron's father, Ewan Cameron appears to be closely related to or part of the line of Lochiel, the Chiefs of Clan Cameron.  From this point back it is all a bit speculative. I am deeply suspicious of  claims to be descended from Kings, Queens, Chiefs etc so this is to be taken with a hefty pinch of salt. Having said this the claim is backed up by multiple other researchers but real evidence is very thin on the ground.

 

A statistic worth considering is as follows. This was 10 generations ago. Large families were the norm as was premature death, especially in women, so re-marriage was very common, usually resulting in a second bunch of children. Taking a very conservative average of 4 kids per generation surviving to have kids themselves, after 10 generations there are 4.2 million descendants of Ewan Cameron in my generation. Seeing as the current population of Scotland is 5.4 million perhaps the link is not so unlikely.

 

So believe it or not, I will leave this one with you to decide for yourself.

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