Do you ever think . . . what’s in a name?  How a name moves people?  Do you ever wonder how a name travels?  Can a name empower?  Does the name “McLaughlin” inspire you? 

 

As far as we can tell, the genesis of our family surname a.k.a. last name “McLaughlin” is centered in port city Glasgow, Scotland, with a Scottish man named Duncan McLachlan.  

 

The last name McLachlan is of Scottish Gaelic origin and differing interpretations say it means “from the land of lakes” or “son of the one from the fjords.”

 

Duncan McLachlan married Katherine Robertsone.  Both were born in the late 1600s.  They likely spoke Scots – the language of the Lowlands, and may have lived through the Seven Ill Years, a time of severe famine in Scotland from about 1695 to 1702, and recorded as one of the worst famines in Scottish history. 

 

During that time, Scotland was experiencing what later became known as the “Little Ice Age”.  This extremely cold weather most likely caused the crop failures and resulting famine.

 

Without archival information at our disposal, we can only imagine the lives Duncan and Katherine lived and how they evolved both as individuals and as a couple.  What did they enjoy?  What gave them their zeal for life and living?  What scared or worried them?  How did their families survive in Glasgow, Scotland during the economic devastation and extreme weather?  What about their descendants, our ancestors? 

 

Try to imagine with this in mind

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Now, we can assume that how they lived was heavily influenced by their social class, access to education, and family connections.  If Duncan McLachlan was born into a family with few financial means, meaning - little money, he may have been more likely to engage in manual labor or farming, while a financially wealthier family may have steered him into a career in trade, law, or academia.

 

In the early 1700s Glasgow, Scotland was becoming a significant trade hub.  Scots traded mostly tobacco, sugar, and other goods from the Americas and the Caribbean.

 

Duncan McLachlan could have been a trader or merchant who imported or exported goods like cloth, wine, or coal.  He could have been a craftsman specializing in weaving in linen or woolen fabrics.  Or he could have been a sailor or fisherman drifting the River Clyde, a crucial waterway for local fishing and a gateway for maritime trade. 

 

Like Duncan’s possibilities, Katherine’s prospects were likely influenced by her family’s social class, education and family connections, but more importantly – she was a woman, and her opportunities were more than likely limited by social norms.  Katherine could have contributed to the family’s household income as a weaver, or she could have been an alewife who brewed and sold ale.  Back then brewing ale was a traditionally domestic activity, done to supply families with drinkable liquids, as water was often unsafe to drink. Women would sell ale to neighbors or local taverns.   

 

Perhaps seeking quiet and a slower pace than the urban center of Glasgow, Duncan and Katherine decided to move about 5 miles southwest to Govan, another lowland area of Scotland.  There, they started their family, giving birth to Daniel McLachlan in 1718.  It would not be farfetched to imagine Duncan to be a fisherman or sailor, as back then in Govan, the local men were involved in fishing or ferrying goods and people across the River Clyde.  

 

Only a few hundred people lived in Govan during the early 18th century.  Govan was a rural, tight-knit agricultural community and probably had a more calming atmosphere than Glasgow.  The young family may have lived in a small cottage made of stone or thatch, heating their home and cooking with a central open hearth, typical for rural homes in Govan.  In such a small town, they may have known many, if not, all of their neighbors, and enjoyed kirn nights, where they celebrated with music and dancing after gathering much cherished crops. 

  

As Daniel McLachlan came of age, perhaps in search for new economic opportunities in the whisky trade or expanding agriculture in barley, or even to find the love of his life, he migrated east to Campbeltown, Argyll, Scotland, part of the Scottish Highlands.  There he married Margaret and the two gave birth to a son, Dougald McLachlan in 1740.  

 

At the age of 27, Dougald married Katherin McCallum on August 29, 1767, and the two soon after migrated from Scotland to Cumberland, North Carolina, where they raised 8 children.  Cumberland, North Carolina (now Fayetteville) was a major destination for Highland Scots.  As more European settlers arrived, Native Americans, who cared for and thrived on the land for thousands of years, were pushed away.  

 

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Dougald and Katherin may have been enticed to migrant to North Carolina by promotional literature and stories spread throughout Scotland describing affordable land grant programs and the possibility to own large acres of land in North Carolina.  They may have jumped at the opportunity to escape the rigid class and political structure of 18th century Scotland, which was under British control, where many tenant farmers and small landowners struggled to pay their rent and enjoy religious and political freedom. 

 

The American colonies became a respite for many Scots. North Carolina offered a warmer climate than the Highlands and Lowlands, fertile land, and ownership opportunities.   By the 1760s, Cumberland County had an established Gaelic-speaking Highland Scots settlement, and may have felt like home for Dougald and Katherin. 

 

For unknown reasons, Dougald and Katherin’s last name changed from McLachlan to McLauchlin.  Among their 8 children is our family’s direct ancestor - Edward McLauchlin, who was born in Rockfish, Cumberland, North Carolina.

 

In 1806, Edward moved to South Carolina and married Elinor McDonald.  The two raised 12 children.  Edward McLauchlin migrated to the territory of Mississippi to enlist in the War of 1812 on November 2, 1813.  His recorded name at the time he enlisted changed from McLauchlin to McLaughlin, the spelling we use today.  

 

After his service, Edward settled in Wayne County, Mississippi, where he purchased 154.25 acres of land on September 1, 1824, from a land grant signed by Martin VanBuren.  A man of his time, he also settled into the slave trade.  Mississippi, known as the Cotton Kingdom, was a plantation society, with a dominant slave market in the 1820s.  

 

Between 1830 to 1850 Edward purchased over 35 enslaved people to work his land.  U.S. Census records of Edward’s enslaved property from 1830 to 1870, track a black female enslaved person we believe to be our ancestor, Teressa McLaughlin, born around 1823.  Various census records described her as mulatto and black.  

 

Teressa was most likely American born, and could have been the first generation of enslaved Africans from West Africa.  Her family could have been from Nigeria, Cameroon, or Senegal.  Countries of origin that show up in several of her descendant's DNA, in addition to 30% Scottish DNA.   

 

Five years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, the 1870 census listed 47 year old Teressa as “Keeping House.”  By this time she’d had 8 children spanning from ages 26 to 2, many of whom were likely Edward’s children. 

 

Despite the heinous nature of slavery, where families were torn apart, Teressa’s 8 children were still with her in Mississippi.  She kept them together.  And they took the McLaughlin last name.  The land came next.  

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In 1900, her son King McLaughlin, though the son of an enslaved woman, industrious and a visionary, purchased 300 acres of land in Waynesboro, Mississippi, including his father Edward’s plantation purchased almost over half a century earlier.  He accomplished this rare feat despite Jim Crow era discrimination and Black folks limited access to capital markets.  

 

King married Jennie and the two raised 6 children, Rachel, Eddie, Albert, Isabella, Charles, and Tully.  Our clan descends from Charles.  

 

Charles William McLaughlin married Clara McCann, who raised 8 children in Waynesboro, Mississippi, on the same land Charles’ grandmother Teressa toiled over as an enslaved woman from a young child into adulthood. Those children are Ward, Bob, Jennie, Bertha, Joe King, Arabelle, Claudia, and Annie Lee.   

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