Project Badenoch is the final element of the site.
In researching the Allanach name, there have been three focuses :
- Individual ancestors named Allanach (One-name study)
- The places the Allanachs lived in Glen Nochty, Strathdon (One-place study)
- The origins of the Allanach line
Project Badenoch aims to address the third point, and explore the Allanach line prior to 1799.
So many Allanach lines end with Duncan Allanach, who we know from his gravestone was born in 1749 but little of where or his parentage.
It would be easy to say that the Allanach history ends in the 1700s because thats when the records end, but that’s simply not true. There are actually 243 birth, death and marriage records for Allanachs prior to 1799 on the Scotland’s People website, some going as far back as 1638.
Add to this, old parish and Kirk Session records where Allanachs acted as witnesses, tax records, Estate records, wills, and criminal records and you potentially have hundreds of records.
And that is just for the Allanach name. Because I think we can take the name back even further!
Ever noticed how many Allanach records have a Stewart/ Stuart link, such as a middle name or ‘alias’ name, or even a full name change? Well, the working theory is that all Allanachs are in fact Stewarts, and that the reason there are no Allanachs prior to the 1500s in the records is because the name was only established then , as a cadet branch of the Stewart family. Specifically of the descendants of Alasdair Mòr mac an Rìgh, Alexander Stewart, the Wolf of Badenoch.
I have made s short video to explain some of the rationale why I think the Wolf of Badenoch makes a good North Star point to direct research and is based on strong basis of location of earlier records, migration patterns and succession patterns.
Its a huge project with many hundreds of documents to locate, record, transcribe and interpret, and going back 500 years almost at the edge of the possible in terms of documented records. But even if not achieved, it massively improves our understanding of earlier Allanach ancestors. And if achieved, it plugs us into a Stewart line that goes back a thousand years.
I have already had a lot of help but any assistance gratefully receive; be it helping transcribe documents, help in linking them together (think of it as Sudoku with purpose!) or in giving research tips and ideas.