Hebridean Emigration Resources

Introduction

People from the Outer Hebrides have emigrated all over the world over the last 300 years. For this reason, it is a vast research subject. This page therefore lists just a few examples of sources on emigration which are particularly pertinent to the Outer Hebrides.

The numbers of people leaving the islands began to increase markedly from the 1750s. These early emigrants went mainly to North Carolina and New York State. After the USA won its independence in 1783, Canada (or British North America as it was known at that time) became a more common destination for settlers.

Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Cape Breton were the main settlements to begin with. Later, people went west – to the prairies of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, or to cities like Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver. Other destinations included the Eastern Townships of Quebec and Huron County, Ontario. These places, and more besides, are associated with settlers from the Outer Hebrides.

  • Australia and New Zealand were settled by Hebrideans from the 1850s.
  • From around 1870, at the height of the British Empire, islanders began to go even further afield to the colonies which were under UK control and influence.
  • From around 1900 South America needed shepherds for the huge ranches there and the Outer Hebrides became a labour source for this industry.
  • During the 1920s, vast numbers left for new opportunities overseas, including young women, many of whom went to work in domestic service or as nurses.

Resources

There are a wide range of resources available if you are researching this topic – see below to find information on Statistical Accounts, Napier Commission, Highlands & Islands Emigration Society, Cemetery Records, The Nicholson Institute Magazine, and the Tasglann nan Eilean Family History Guide.

Information on Particular Emigration Destinations can be found here; Canada, United States of America, South America, Australia, New Zealand

Statistical Accounts of Scotland

The first or ‘Old’ Statistical Accounts of Scotland (1791-1799) are among the best contemporary reports of life during the agricultural and industrial revolutions of Europe. They were the brainchild of Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster. Every parish minister in Scotland was asked to complete a report. The reports were rich and detailed, covering subjects such as agriculture, education, trades, religion and social customs. The Accounts can be used to study the factors which may have pushed people to emigrate. They have been digitised and are freely available online at: https://stataccscot.ed.ac.uk/

Napier Commission Evidence

Also known as the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands. This Inquiry was set up by Parliament in response to land agitation and protest by crofters in the 1870s and 1880s. The Commissioners travelled round the islands taking evidence from crofters, landowners’ representatives, and others, to establish people’s grievances.

The evidence was published in 1884, in five volumes and is a highly significant source of information about social and economic conditions generally, including emigration events. It is direct testimony from the people themselves, and includes many references to crofters being cleared from their land and then being sent overseas by force. There are also claims that some chose to emigrate in search of better opportunities. The evidence led to the first Crofters’ Act of 1886.

This source is available online at: https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/research-enterprise/cultural/centre-for-history/research/resources/the-napier-commission

Highland and Island Emigration Society

The Highland and Island Emigration Society was a voluntary organisation set up in 1852 – shortly after the potato famine which struck in the late 1840s – to assist people to emigrate, with the aim of relieving severe poverty. Between 1852 and 1857, the Society assisted nearly 5000 men, women and children to leave for Australia. Most of the emigrants were from Skye, Harris, St Kilda and Uist. HIES ship passenger lists are available to view on the Scotland’s People website, at: https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/help-and-support/guides/highland-and-island-emigration-society-records

This website tells the story of one infamous HIES voyage – that of the Hercules:https://blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/family-matters/the-voyage-of-the-hercules/

Cemetery Records

Cemeteries can be a useful source of information for ancestral research; inscriptions and images of gravestones are captured by websites such as:

Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com

Commonwealth War Graves Commission: https://www.cwgc.org/

The Nicolson Institute, Stornoway: Records held by Tasglann nan Eilean

The annual magazines of the Nicolson Institute (the local secondary school in Stornoway) are a useful source for finding out about the varied careers pursued by island emigrants. The Magazine started around 1914. The ‘Jottings’ and ‘Obituary’ columns contain information about former pupils who had emigrated overseas. The 1936 edition contains an interesting account of educational Film Shows attended by pupils. These were supplemented by speakers from overseas. These illustrated to pupils the range of careers available overseas, or about life abroad. Visit this page for more information.

Family History Guide

Tasglann nan Eilean have produced a useful Family History Guide which contains genealogical sources.

Download a copy of the Tasglann Family History Guide

Information on Particular Emigration Destinations

Canada

Baile nan Gàidheal Highland Village Museum

Baile nan Gàidheal is a living history museum and folklife centre that celebrates the story, language and living culture of Nova Scotia Gaels and the legacy of the Hebridean diaspora.  https://highlandvillage.novascotia.ca/

General reading on Highlands & Islands emigration to Canada

  • Ian Adams and Meredyth Somerville, Cargoes of despair and hope : Scottish emigration to North America, 1603-1803(John Donald, 1993)
  • John L. Campbell (editor), Songs remembered in exile : traditional Gaelic songs from Nova Scotia recorded in Cape Breton and Antigonish County in 1937 with an account of the causes of Hebridean emigration, 1790-1835 (Birlinn, 1990 (2nd edition))
  • Karly Kehoe,“A colony to themselves” : Scottish Highland settler colonialism in British North America, 1770–1804 (Journal of British Studies, volume 63, issue 3, July 2024, pp. 588-605)
  • Kathleen Toomey, Emigration from the Scottish Catholic bounds, 1770-1810 and the role of the clergy (University of Edinburgh Press, 1991)

Works on Specific Aspects of Emigration to Canada

Language and Culture

Michael Newton (editor), Seanchaidh na coille / The memory-keeper of the forest  (Cape Breton University Press, 2015)

This anthology of Gaelic poetry and prose literature showcases the experiences of Gaels in Canada.  Newton explains that the Gaelic title seanchaidh has no exact equivalent in English. A seanchaidh is a professional custodian of seanchas: communal memory, history and experience. He also explains that the image of the forest is a dominant one in Gaelic diaspora literature which refers to North America and Canada as “Dùthaich nan Craobh” (The land of trees) and “A’ choille ghruamach” (The gloomy forest).

Along with English translations and information on biographical, historical, socio-cultural and literary contexts, this anthology covers many themes including migration, settlement, love and death, religion, language and literature, identity, and politics.

You can hear Michael Newton discussing his research processes and sources in this interview for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/audio/1.3348864

Roderick Mackenzie – Research on Indigenous People’s Languages

Roderick Mackenzie, born in Ross-shire, was a cousin of the famous explorer Sir Alexander Mackenzie, and it is believed he was brought up with him in Stornoway during part of his youth.  Inspired by the example of the Statistical Account of Scotland, Roderick conducted a Survey of North-West Canada in 1806.

As a partner in the North West Company (NWC), he had a lot of contact with Indigenous Peoples through the fur trade. He issued a printed Circular to the ‘Indian Traders’ in the NWC asking for an ‘Account of their respective Indians’.

An interesting and valuable aspect of this survey was the provision of a list of words for which he wished each trader to supply the equivalents in the languages of the Indigenous Peoples living in their area. The responses comprise the major part of the Masson collection now in McGill University Library, Montreal, Canada. http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/nwc/toolbar_1.htm

Prince Edward Island, Canada

Hudson’s Bay Company

Angus Macdonald, Pemmican and portages : the Isle of Lewis, the fur trade and the Hudson’s Bay Company  (Islands Book Trust, 2025)

Drawing on personal testimonies, this book tells the stories of the hundreds of Lewis men involved in the North American fur trade and Arctic exploration during the 19th century.

Isle of Lewis settlement in Ontario, Canada and the Eastern Townships of Quebec

Margaret Bennett, Oatmeal and the catechism: Scottish Gaelic settlers in Quebec (John Donald, 2003)

Angus Macleod: various publications on clearances, genealogy, cemetery inscriptions https://www.hebrides.ca/

United States of America

Many of the men who left Lewis in the early 19th century to work in the Hudsons Bay fur trade ended up subsequently migrating to the USA.

Later, in the 1920s, many left the Outer Hebrides in the 1920s under government schemes. They were supposed to settle on farms in Canada in order to repay part of the cost of their fare. Instead, many migrated illegally to the USA for better paid employment in factories, mines and other industries.

Lewis Society of Detroit archive records, held by Tasglann nan Eilean

The Lewis Society of Detroit, USA, was founded in approximately 1919 to enable those with connections with the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, who were living in Detroit to meet together for social events and to “foster and preserve the language, traditions, customs and amusements of the people.”

http://ica-atom.outerhebridesheritage.org.uk/index.php/lewis-society-of-detroit-1919-1972;isad

South America

  • Greta Mackenzie, Why Patagonia (Stornoway Gazette, 1996 (2nd edition))
  • Greta Mackenzie, Return to Patagonia (Islands Book Trust, 2010 (2nd edition))

Mackenzie’s first book ‘Why Patagonia?’ told the story of the many island people who sought employment on the vast sheep estanchias of Patagonia, and elsewhere throughout the South American continent, in the early years of the 20th century.

In ‘Return to Patagonia’ – an updated and extended version – the author returns to the subject, detailing the incredible history and enduring links between the Outer Hebrides and Patagonia.

This, and many other interesting local historical publications, are available from: https://islandsbooktrust.org/

Australia

White Hut Gaelic Cemetery, Clare, South Australia: https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2638073/white-hut-gaelic-cemetery

Eric Richards, The Highland Scots of South Australia (Journal of The Historical Society of South Australia, number 4, 1978, pp. 33-64) https://historicalsocietysa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Number-4-1978.pdf

The Genealogical Society of Victoria https://www.gsv.org.au

New Zealand

Gaelic Society of New Zealand: records held by the University of Otago
The Gaelic Society of New Zealand was founded in 1881. Its main objectives were to foster and uphold the customs, traditions, language, literature, stories, music and songs from the Scottish Highlands. https://hocken.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/60887

Jennifer Jane Ann Colman,Transmigration of the Piob Mhor : the Scottish Highland piping tradition in the South Island of New Zealand, with particular reference to Southland, Otago, and South Canterbury to 1940 (University of Otago doctoral thesis, 1993) https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/esploro/outputs/doctoral/Transmigration-of-the-Piob-Mhor/9926479538401891

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