Superior Public Museums acquired a set of materials from McDougall’s West Coast family in Washington State in the last month. Included in that material is a portrait of Islay, McDougall’s third daughter. Images of the family are comparatively scarce and such a family portrait is a welcome addition to the extent materials.

I was asked to provide some information regarding Islay for the SPM’s newslettter, and that prompted an interesting set of thoughts. Page 124 of the 1932 Autobiography lists Islay’s death being in 1895. Additionally, the headstone at Forest Hill Cemetery in Duluth also lists her birth as being in 1887 and death in 1895. So, that should settle things right?

Hardly. The Duluth Daily News for November 21, 1893 observes that Islay McDougall “daughter of Capt. McDougall, passed away after a long illness.” The paper for the 22nd, notes that a memorial service would be held at McDougall’s house. On the 23rd the paper states that “a memorial service was held and well attended.” This is for 1893, not 1895. According to the Minnesota state census of 1895, there is no Islay McDougall listed for the family. So, something is going on here.

The problem is that the death certificate for Islay is not listed on-line, so where it is would be in Minnesota, a rather long ways away from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Similarly, her birth certificate, if she had one, is quite the distance from here. Additionally, the U.S. Census for 1890 was destroyed in a fire for the city level enumeration, so that is of no help. The Minnesota state census for 1885 is prior to the time that she was born, so no help there either.

At this point, I am fairly confident that unless the newspaper, that was very specific regarding whom it was speaking of, is wrong, Islay actually died in 1893. All of the stones at Forest Hill are very similar indicating that they were put there after the fact, not individually as a person passed. Further, there is a listing from Ontario, for a baby born in Toronto in 1880 that would link with the headstone marked “Baby.” The listing has a name of “Constance” but no parents, so it would be interesting if that was that baby.

Certainly the McDougall’s were no strangers to tragedy. The oldest son, Ross died in 1890 at age 12, a daughter born in 1880 , as did a daughter Elsie at just shy of 18 months in 1883, and then Islay. Only two children lived to adulthood, Alexander Miller (born September 10, 1884) and Emeline (also spelled “Emelyn”) Miller in either 1890, 1892, or 1893. And thus need to be careful as A.Miller also had a daughter with the same name as well as an Islay.

Such are the challenges of family history.