Books

MACRAES TO AMERICA!! Cornelia served as Historian of the Clan MacRae Society North America. She realized the difficulty Clan members had in locating information to pursue their genealogies. She researched and compiled the records and identified the spelling variants for the Clan. The result is this book: A Brief History of the Clan MacRae / McRath of Scotland and Ireland plus American Census Records for 68 Spelling Variants of the Name, Arranged by State and by First Name in Chronological Order. © Cornelia W. Bush, All Rights Reserved. Suggested Retail $29.95, 632 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1597150255.Publisher: CHAPEL HILL PRESS and is available from AMAZON GOOGLE Book Search SPELLING VARIANTS: In general, the MacRaes/MacRays are the Scots and the MacGraths/MacRaths are the Irish, but since we are all originally one Clan or family, I have listed all spelling variants for both groups. Please note that Clan MacRae has no septs, only spelling variants of the one Gaelic name. CRA, CRAE, CRAY, CREA, CRE, CREAY, CREE, GRATH, MACARA, MACARRA, MACCRA, MACCRACH , MACCRAE, MACCRAITH, MACCRAW, MACCRAY, MACCREA, MACCREATH, MACCREE, MACCRIE, MACCROW, MACCROY, MACGRATH, MACGRAW, MACHRAE, MACHRIE, MACHRAY, MACKRAY, MACKRE, MACKREE, MACKREATH, MAKRE, MACRA, MACRACH, MACRAE, MACRAITH, MACRATH, MACRAW, MACRAY, MACREATH, MACREE, MACRIE, MAGRAITH, MAGRATH, MCCRA, MCCRAE, MCCRAY, MCCREA, MCCREATH, MCCREE, MCRA, MCRAE, MCREE, MCRIE, MCGRATH, MCRATH, MCRAITH, MCREATH, RA, RAE, RAITH, RATH, RAW, RAY, REA, REATH, WREATH, WRAY PREVIOUS PUBLICATIONS: Include The Village of Monroe, The Celebration of a Century, Publisher: Royal Fireworks Press, NY Review by Clan MacRae Society North America Newsletter Editor Larry Cates: This work from Cornelia Bush, past historian of the Clan MacRae Society of North America, is an important achievement for McRae research. Its title does not exactly describe its content, so it requires a bit of explanation here. All but the first 12 pages are devoted to a listing of United States census entries for the name MacRae and 67 variants thereof, including Ray and its several permutations. It is less a history or set of “records,” then, than an index, and focuses exclusively on one type of record. As anyone who has searched for our surname knows, census takers and those who created indexes to the census have been notorious in misrepresenting, misreading or misspelling the name and the commonly used variants are bewildering in their extent and variety. Nevertheless, when I first approached the volume, I wondered, why another index? We now have the capacity to search on-line images of census records using soundex capabilities and then, there are the trusty print indices that have been available for years. But when I began to examine the contents, I realized, that even I, who have combed Southern census records meticulously for instances of the name, have missed a good many records of great importance to my research. I am grateful for the painstaking work Ms Bush has done here. The index is organized first by state, then by forename alphabetically regardless of the surname variant. The surname is the next organizational element, followed by the census year, chronologically. Using this arrangement, one can look for the desired given name within a particular state and trace it through various spellings over several census years. This is a sound organizational scheme, but I found that it did not apply throughout the book. The Alabama section, for instance, places Rays before McRaes and does not collate the two by given name. There are also suspiciously few “Ray” entries in certain sections, leading me to believe they were not surveyed consistently. Furthermore, I found that there is less information about the records Ms Bush actually surveyed than would be required to make the work transparent. She states in her introduction, “Not all years are fully represented, and the best coverage occurs from 1790 to 1850, though some later records are included as noted….” This selectivity, though understandable considering the volume of records involved, should be made known to the reader through a precise list of those schedules surveyed (and information about the degree to which they were surveyed for individual name variants) so that the user will understand whether or not there are other indices he or she should employ to supplement use of this volume. Finally, there are references to several non-decennial listings which are clearly not federal census records but substitutes for them, and these sources, whether tax lists, state census records or voter registration records, should be clearly identified along with some guidance on where to find the originals. In spite of these objections, however, any hardcore McRae researcher can profit from use of the book. He/she will just have to realize that there is not, nor is there ever likely to be, a one-stop index guide for a given surname with so many variations and possibilities for error in reading and transcription. Ms Bush’s book should be used as one important base component in the search for McRae census entries. —Larry Cates, Sgurr Uaran, volume 31, number 2, Page 9, August 2007 Note by Author: the availability of certain records has to do with their survival and transcription by other parties. Many records which have not survived have substitutes, but since this book is a finding aid, the goal is to provide information for the records which were found. Scottish roots? See you at The Gathering!. AMERICAN PEERAGE® is a service mark of Cornelia W. Bush, All rights reserved. © Cornelia W. Bush, All Rights Reserved, 2002-2008.