An area of the web site where members family history are shown.
Research by members volunteers and cross contact for family research purposes.
Formation of biannual newsletter.
To trace any Branch or Sept Chieftain or Laird of the name.
Any other suggestions from members or future members are more than welcome.
NEWS UPDATES IN REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
MAY 2007
Our discussions have continued with a family of the name to take on the mantle as our figurehead and these are now in there final stages, more on this will be reported on in September/October newsletter, with a future announcement.
We have continued in discussions with Clan Donnachaidh (international) regarding our future within the Clan and also with regard to further research we are willing to do into the Donachie families. In relation to this, Bryan Donachy has kindly volunteered and will be doing further research over the next six month in relation to the West coast Donnachies and the frequent cross-migration of Irish and Scots.
Our own Lesley Roberts (membership secretary) will be providing further information on the Angus Donnochy's and Donnachies, Lesley also reports that although our membership has slowed down somewhat from last years spurt, we still have a constant trickle of new members mainly from the USA and more recently from Scotland and the UK. Since our last membership update in 2006, we have gained an extra 53 new members, I think you will agree with me, some promising figures indeed, seeing that we have only been active for a few years.
So Donnachys keep joining and providing us with any information and items that you need researching. We will always try to assist our members in tracing family connections.
Duncan Donnachie, Chairman of The Donachie Society.
December 2006
The Donnachaidh gathering did not go quite as expected and therefore further discussion and negotiations were being sought to see what course and direction our society should follow in the future, therefore our own council and members will be canvased for their views. We do hope that the initial discussion with the Clan Donnachaidh representatives continue in the same positive vein, we will keep you all updated.
August 2006
From our parent clan, Clan Donnachaidh, we have an invitation and request to all the members of our Society and any Donachies who want to attend and give clan Donnachaidh full backing at their Annual General Meeting in October 2006. Please see the very informative Donnachaidh International Website for full details.
Our figurehead and President will be announced and will be attending. It is anticipted interesting news will be announced, which is of utmost importance for our society and Clan Donnachaidh.
It is appreciated that many of our members live outside the United Kingdom and may be unable to attend this year, but we hope that you will be able to show your support for our Clan.
Duncan Donnachie, Chairman of The Donachie Society.
June 2005
Sadly negotiations that had been taking place with the Laird to head our society came to a somewhat abrupt end with his unexpected death. Negotiations are however continuing with his heirs and family and we soon hope to be able to report the installation of a society head.
The Society hopes to eventually have recognition as a clan in itself and will therefore maintain a ?Clan Roll Call?, which represents a listing of persons declaring themselves to be members of the Clan. This is of particular importance because we need to gather together as a Clan in order to successfully petition the Court of the Lord Lyon in Scotland to recognise a Clan Donachie Leader. The names of all qualifying Society members are automatically added to The Clan Roll Call upon submission of their Membership Application. Click here to learn more about membership in the Society.
Through your membership in the Clan Donachie Society, you can support your Clan in its efforts to spread the word about our establishment so that we can bring our kinsmen together and grow our membership by being a member and assisting the Society's efforts to gain official recognition from the authorities in Scotland. With your help, we hope to have our Clan officially recognised.
February 2005
We wish to apologise that due to unforseen circumstances we have been unable to update the site recently. We are currently catching up on all the news and will publish an update as soon as possible.October/November
Well we have been busy with a number of meetings of founder members in developing a constitution and remit for our future office holders we have had a number of emails requesting branches to be commenced in the US we welcome this, anybody who wishes to start up a local group please send us your details and contact numbers, we will be happy to act as go between to develop our international links further. Some people are still not filling in the 'join up' page so that we can send out our emails with further information. Please remember this is your society, so if you wish to place any contact information or familyy research request or information feel free to place it onto the guest book page as previously stated. In the future we hope to increase our pages providing with useful information and research. We are still receiving praise and requests for reciprocal links with a number of Clan Societies and sites of Scottish interest. Yet again our members have travelled around the south West area of Scotland and up to Glasgow, meeting prospective members around Ayr city centre. A new small members group will be starting in the area in the near future. [ Point of contact will be our own Lesley Roberts.]Negotiations with our landed Laird are continuing. We are finalising the negotiations for him to become the figurehead of our society and take over the helm and we have access to his tartan which he has already allowed for the use of all persons associated with the name of Donachie, its variants and all descendants of our name and of course for use on this our site as of now.
We will keep you informed of any developments as they occur. As you will appreciate the Laird wants our young society to be correctly managed and its development and growth to progress smoothly and efficently. Although we believe and hope that we will become ultimately recognised as a small Clan in our own right. He is adamant that we are to be associated with Clan Donachiadh or the Robertson Clan and that our future should be linked with them.
He believes like myself that this should not detract from the aims of our society, in becoming recognised as a small clan in its own right, but possibly under the confederation of the Robertson clan as a small clan or branch. This would be like so many other clans who already do have similar status. He has stated that Robertson of Struan is the Chief of Clan Donnachaidh (Robertson) and all our members should be aware of this fact.
On a seperate note regular visitors will see that our site has been totally upgraded. This has been done to enable the easy edition of pages in the future, whilst keeping navigation simple. The design is now also access friendly and anybody with visual impairements who uses a text reader should be able to access all areas of the site. Any problems please let us know.
A tartans page has been added to the site displaying tartans that can be used by anybody of the name Donachie or its variants
Many thanks for your support in kinship and friendship, Duncan Donnachie.President Elect of the Donachie Society .
August /September
Well I must apologies for missing out on the last newsletter, holiday periods and fact finding and further enquiries in the outlying Ayrshire regions re the tracing of a head of a landed estate of our name, made it impossible to produce the last newspaper.We have however made somewhat of a fantastic breakthrough in our search and principle aim in the tracing of a head for our Society. We have traced a Laird of our name who has a landed estate in the South West of Scotland. We are currently in negotiations with him over him becoming the figurehead of our society and taking on the mantle of our Chief elect. We obviously do not wish to state anything until we have had it confirmed with him and his family all the relevant points however we are very glad that we have eventually traced a landed representative of our name who we hope will eventually become the head of our family of Donachie.
More will follow on this splendid news over the proceeding few months. We think you will share in our joy that our aims are becoming reality and we are going from strength to strength, in such a short time.
We have discovered a prevalent family of Dunnachie's in Ayr and Maybole areas originally a Dundee family who in the 18th centaury moved down to Glasgow searching for employment.
Our membership is slowly increasing and going forward, any suggestions from members re future events and ideas how to incease our membership will always be appreciated this is our site and we will always take on board our members views.
We hope in the future to have a members page where you can send in your views, likes, interesting facts about our family and maybe photos of yourselves or other family related topics. We will keep anyone 's contact and family tree details on the guestbook page for the foreseeable future. So remember to use all the pages of the site.
We are being inundated with requests to link to our website from some prominent Clan and Scottish Society sites. This in itself shows, how we are being highly viewed, by our peers. We are still top of the search engine lists for our name thanks to the expertise of our Webmaster, Graham and he deserves our thanks for all his hard work. Please remember that this society us free and open to all those of the name, its descendants from ancestors of our name or who are connected in some way to the Donachie's. It's up keep function and costs has been met by the founding members. All we ask is the membership increases to show the concept of kinship is worth its continuance. Keep the membership and email coming for the future of our worldwide family We have made some great achievements recently the site and society is going from strength to strength, we have a lot to look forward to in the future years.
That leaves me to thank all who have done such hard work getting
our site to what it today and what it is becoming. A new society
and an effective branch of the great Clan Robertson. We hope you
share in the Societies good fortune and wish you all the very best.
In unity and kinship.
Duncan Donnachie President Elect of The Donachie
Society.
June/July 2004
Well our research continues and although finding numerous Donnachie families we have as yet, not uncovered a possible leader or figurehead so unfortunately the search continues...
Our researchers have found over 40 Donachie's around Ayrshire and on examination of a number of other records, such as the Ayrshire phone directory there is over 180 Donachie variants in this area alone. We are discussing with the members of the council openly making contact with them to inform our Donnachie kin about our new society and its website, giving them the option of joining us, after all we always preach the more the merrier don't we!
Remember joining our society is completely free and at no cost to you, the members, so please encourage all your relatives to join, swelling our members roll call. We hope in the future to develop an award scheme for clan members which will encourage the clan spirit, culture and heritage of the Scottish clans.
In July and August we hope to have finished our research in Ayrshire and then to possibly move on down to the outlying Galloway regions.
A most important feature of our society is our eventual recognition as a Clan. As such one of our societies aims is to gain what we have never had; That of official recognition as a Clan, from the Lord Lyon King of Arms. Therefore coming together as an unified and organized group of our name, we are working to gain recognition for our Clan and hope to find a new Clan Leader who would be recognised as such by the Lord Lyon. I as Society President Elect do not ever intend or expect to become Leader of our Clan, but I do wish to find a suitable Chieftain or Laird of the name, who will fill the required criteria desired by the authorities. In the future we shall seek the expert and valued advise from the Court of the Lord Lyon. We are aware that this will be a lengthy procedure and are in preparation for this and believe that much work remains to be done.
Although we are and have always stressed that we are part of the Robertson Clan we hope to eventually be recognised, (not just as a small Sept of the Clan) but as a major branch of clan Robertson and as a small clan in-itself we ask all who support this venture and the Clan revival efforts of the Donachie Society to furnish your details in the join up page of this site. This will be of particular importance because we need to gather together as a full and united Clan in order to successfully petition the Court of the Lord Lyon in Scotland, to recognize Clan Donachie and its future leader/Chieftan. Without a substantial Clan body, our petition will most likely be denied and Clan Donachie will continue to be only recognized as a small Sept of the Robertson clan and individuals associated with the Robertson Clan.
The names of all qualifying Society members will be automatically added to the Clan Roll Call upon submission of their Membership Application on our join up page. Please support our future Clan revival efforts and can do so by joining up. It's never too late for you to help your kinsmen and our Clan. Remember obtaining official recognition will be a lengthy process and therefore as we continue to grow, our position will be strengthened. Including your name will help to get the official recognition that your Clan deserves!
Please remember by adding your name to the Clan in the 'join up' you are encouraged if you wish as Clan members to support the Clan's interests, by participating in the and kinship of the society and to actively and collectively supporting future aims and projects.
Duncan Donnachie President elect of the Donachie Society.
April/May 2004
Welcome new members to the Society we are still top of the search engines for our name and membership is still trickling forward. Congratulations to Lesley Roberts who has been appointed as our new Clan Society link officer for the UK. Lesley will be responsibly for any correspondence with our parent Clan and liaison with other Clans. We have continued our links with the Clans and have recently developed a mutual link with Clan Hannay, unfortunately their Clan Chief has recently passed away. Our sympathy goes out to the family of this fine gentleman.
We have been active again in North Ayrshire and had some
interesting new information on some landed families of the name of
Donachie (& variants..)
South Ayrshire seems to be prolific for Donnachie's, Donachie's and
Donnachy's we hope to widen the search now to incorporate the South
Ayrshire region and will have a few members searching the records
in libaries and register offices in Maybole and Girvan during June.
Also from very recent information there appears some pockets of the
name, around Galloway so we may end up widening our search to this
new region in the future. From our research todate, it seems like
our Sept although small, is larger than we originally thought. It
does seem that this branch of Clan Donnachaidh (Robertson) was in
larger numbers in the West and South of Scotland. We therefore hope
to trace a laird or landed family, who may take on the mantle of
figurehead of our Society in the future.
Current and future projects are the Bi Annual newsletter for members, a possible photo page of Society officers together with a society members page. Research/family history page and the possibility of eventually having a gathering of our members. Lesley Roberts (Via this website e-mail please) will be taking views on the latter idea. Also a future page on Areas, Castles or Clans strongly assiociated and connected with the name. We as an organisation intend to become members of the Scottish Tartans Authority and the Scottish History Society as corporate members. Remember members wishing to become actively involved in the Society please drop us a line. For the present time members wishing to put information or research links please place them onto the guestbook page. We intend to continue and increase our mutual links with other Clans. Well that is it for this period, we will keep you posted on the events as they unfold.....
March/ April 2004
We have gained some more new members recently, but unfortunately the membership request have become slower and more of a trickle, possibly this maybe due to the low number of hits we are experiencing as a result of server updates and upgrades. Good news as we are now top of a number of search engine, our hits should go up and we hope that this will in turn increase our membership.
The small group of founding members have returned from there 'information gathering exercise' in Glasgow and North Ayrshire with some good information and some new Donnachie members. Unfortunately the search for the Landed family of the name, the Chieftan or Laird has been negative for Northern Ayrshire area, however in view of some information we believe that the search should continue in South Ayrshire and then Galloway. In view of this we are sending another written request to Registers of Scotland and making enquires with the other varioius agencies to trace any candidates we shall keep you informed of progress. (No doubt this will result in another break for some!
We have developed a number of Clan society links which will continue.
We are hoping to have a new society officer elected for the liaison officer for other Clan societies and particular in linking with our parent Clan Clan Donnachaidh.
We certainly hope by Autumn 2006 we will have increased our membership sufficient to be in a position to hold our first gathering.More on this as time goes on.
We hope that more members come forward in the future offering their assistance with the general duties of the society and we will be looking for delegate worldwide to act as points of contact and officers of the society in their respective countries. So please members or future members come forward and offer your help we will appreciate any and all help offered.
February/March 04.
Our membership grows, but slowly now, unfortunately this is due to the search engines taking time to go live and also ourselves to advance up the ratings, but with luck this should be assisted by the expertise of our webmaster and of course, by time.We have been much honoured by Raymond Morehead the President and Chief elect of The Muirhead Clan Society, to have a link of friendship to their Society and to our website. We hope that the Clan friendship develops further in the future. The Chief has personally been of assistance in advising on some important issues regarding the structure of our Society and its organisation. For his kind and expert advise we are indepted.
Any members wishing to have more of a input into the society please contact us.
Some interesting information has been recieved from Alex @ The Montrose Society, this society is aware that there was a Donochy of Kelly, one of the 'Great Montrose's' trusty officers. More to follow on this subject in a later newsletter.
In March a small party will be heading north to Glasgow and Ayrshire for research purposes into the Donachie's of the West coast, and the search for the elusive Landholding family of our name of Donachie. We will keep you informed of the outcome.
13.02.04
Information in Guestbook from Nick Donachy from Ayr
" I had heard from my grandfather that about 60 odd years ago apparently just before the war there was a group of Donochy's who were a small clan around Glasgow, but I think the chieftan had been killed in the war and the clan had folded sometime after it. "
This is some good information and will be looked into and eventually researched fully. It does corroborate previous information in guestbook about groups of Donachie's (variants) from Glasgow and Ayrshire areas.
12.2.04
Information on Guestbook from new member David Angus Donachie from Lanarkshire. That groups of Donachies were found in the areas of Perthshire Dundee Glasgow and Ayrshire. Records confirm this account.10/2/04
Site getting a number of best wishes and requests for linking. We have had a number of links to a number of Scottish orientated websites and greatly appreciate all the good wishes and assistance offered to our Society.3/2/04
Jean Phillpotts one of our first members of our new Society has kindly agreed to become our Delegate in New Zealand and be a contact for our kinsmen/women in NZ. An additional feature will be added in the future, when we have attracted further overseas delegates. - Welcolme and thanks again, Jean.Autumn 2003
Information from Andrew @ Clan Donnachaidh Society, UK some research has revealed that the Laird of Kellie was called Donochy of Kellie in 1640's he was wounded fighting for the Great Montrose, Donochy was such a valued officer that Montrose instructed that he should be taken to Blair Castle in Atholl, where he was treated for his injuries and recouperated. Research to be carried out with the Archivist at Blair Castle.