Welcome to the Scott-McDougall family tree website.  We trust you will enjoy  the journey down memory lane and beyond into that distant past whence our  ancestors came.

This family tree covers the Scott and McDougall families both forefathers  having come to South Africa from Scotland.  It also embraces the Forbes family  from Ireland and the Green and Streak families from England.

Some time ago, my aunt, Ruth Hamilton [nee McDougall] started researching the  McDougall family.  This sparked an interest with my sister Helen Young [nee  Scott] and me.  We are the co-authors of the Scott-McDougall family tree.   Many hours have been spent in researching, collating and verifying  information.  We are indeed indebted to all our relatives for their kind help  in answering queries, filling in our ancestry charts and family sheets.   Special thanks to our niece, Karen Scott for help with verifying information  and obtaining various certificates in the United Kingdom.

THE PAST

After the end of the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800`s, economic distress in  the British Isles, coupled with the outbreak of the Fifth Kaffir War in South  Africa in April 1819, a scheme of assisted emigration was approved by the  British government.  To ensure that the settlers would be able to survive  until they could harvest their first crops, each settler was required to pay a  deposit before leaving Britain.  The money was to be refunded, in  installments, either in cash or in the form of rations, after arrival in the  Cape Colony.  A deposit of ten pounds sterling was required for each single  man or single woman over the age of 18 years, or family group of married man,  wife and two children in his party.  A further deposit was required for  additional children under the age of 18.  A paltry sum by today`s standards,  but not an inconsiderable amount when it is borne in mind that farmers of that  day were then on the level of 120 pounds per annum, with artisans and the like  earning about 55 pounds and farm labourers about 30 pounds per annum.

Some 32 ships sailed to the Cape, bringing settlers from different ports in  the British Isles.  Mostly they were just plain ordinary people, but people of  strong moral fiber.  People of great courage and faith with personal  aspirations, who did not hesitate to make a dangerous sea voyage to start life  in a new country, a country undeveloped, a wild untamed region, where they had  to build their own shelters and defend them.





FROM IRELAND

ALEXANDER FORBES a farmer aged 27 years, as a member of Parker`s party, sailed  on the `East Indian` which left Cork on 12 February, arriving in Simon`s Bay  on 30 April 1820.  He travelled with his brother, Edward Forbes, wife Harriet  and two children.  The Irish settlers were to have settled in Clanwilliam, but  the area was thought to be too barren.  As a result some members of the party  were settled in the Albany district, amongst them the Forbes brothers.   Alexander Forbes later married an 1820 settler from England.

FROM ENGLAND

On the 10 January 1820, the `Kennersley Castle` left Bristol and reached Table  Bay on 20 March and Algoa Bay on 29 April 1820.  On board was JANE THOMAS  together with her parents James and Mary Thomas, two brothers and two  sisters.  They sailed with Southey`s Party.

The HM Store Ship `Weymouth` left Portsmouth on 7 January 1820, reaching Table  Bay on 26 April 1820 and Algoa Bay on 15 May 1820.  Led by William Meneses was  a party of 12 men and their families.  These men, all ex servicemen under the  age of 40, had been honourably discharged from the armed services at the end  of the Napoleonic wars.  JOHN GREEN, member of this party who had seen service  at the Cape while in the Navy, was from the parish of Walmer.

WILLIAM STREAK aged 27, a husbandman and his wife Elizabeth aged 22, were  members of Thornhill`s party, who left the Downs on the `Zoroaster` on 12  February and reached Simon`s Bay on the 30 April 1820.  Here the ship`s  charter terminated and the settlers were then transshipped to the Albury for  the voyage to Algoa Bay, arriving on 15 May 1820.

THE FUTURE

This has been a labour of love for our families.  The progenitors of our  families in their own way played a significant part in the foundation of a new  country, South Africa.  Today we have a noble heritage to pass on to our  children`s children.