I have been gathering family historical data from many sources -- letters, photographs, books such as family bibles and published genealogical references, oral history, anecdotes, census records, birth and death certificates, etc. -- since about 1955. My intention in making this family tree available online is to provide the means for anyone with internet access to connect our history into that of their own related families, and to make available to anyone who has legitimate use for it, a record of our family's ties to prior generations.
The project is a slow-moving target -- a work in progress. I will be modifying and adding to the database as often as I come upon new information and have an opportunity to enter, verify or caveat its authenticity, and then update the web site. Unavoidably, there will be errors and omissions in the database although I have tried to be as careful with my data entry and as accurate as the sources would support. Omissions will be filled in and errors corrected as soon as new information comes to me. Individuals still living at the time of this update will show "private" for some dates such as birth date and date of marriage. Please use my email address included below to inform me of corrections or additions. At an unknown future date this file, or one like it, will become a hotlink within a dedicated MacQuinn website that my cousin Nicole Reynolds and I will make available eventually. It is our hope that the new website will contain both recent and antique photographs of family members, events, scanned documents, census records, maps, and letters. We may even try to include a means for family members to convey their own individual stories in order to make this project come alive with the addition of personal anecdotes of family events, memories, and individuals.
One of my goals when I started this project was to discover the identity of my immigrant ancestors on both my mother's (MacQueen, McQueen, MacQuinn, McQuinn, McQuin) and my father's (Allen) side. Having succeeded at that task relatively more easily for my father's paternal ancestors than for my mother's, I have recently focused on her family and have finally been successful in connecting her paternal ancestors to the MacQueen clan who hailed originally from the Isle of Skye in the 1500's and who emigrated to the New World from North Uist, Taransay, and the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. My immigrant McQuinn ancestor was Ewen "Hugh" MacQueen who immigrated with his wife, Ann, to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in the first part of the 1840's from Seilibost, Isle of Harris (Outer Hebrides), Scotland.
My immigrant Allen ancestor was Walter Allen who arrived from England with his wife, Rebecca, at Newbury, MA in about 1640. This family tree traces the Walter Allen line of descendents from 1640 in Newbury, MA to the present (2013) especially as it leads to my branch of the family tree. Allen H. Bent of Boston performed quite a thorough search of Walter Allen's descendants publishing his results in 1896. See: WALTER ALLEN of Newbury, Mass., 1640 AND SOME OF HIS DESCENDANTS. With a Few Notes On the Allen Family in General, by ALLEN H. BENTof Boston, Member of the New-England Historic Genealogical Society. Boston: DAVID CLAPP & SON, PRINTERS, 1896. Obviously, since his research was performed prior to its 1896 publication date it does not include information on Walter Allen’s descendents since then. My own research made available in this on-line genealogy expands the branch that leads to my present location on the tree. Nevertheless, Mr. Bent’s research is remarkable for the history it reveals about the lives of many early Allens. Interestingly, much of the documentation Mr. Bent relied upon when he performed his research is no longer available as it has been lost to the ages. Many of the notes displayed in this genealogy were borrowed directly from Mr. Bent’s original published work.
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