My parents often spoke with pride of our pioneer ancestry. While at BYU my brother, Richard joined the McDonald Family Organization and got to known Ila Fisher Maughn, author of “James McDonald Sarah Ferguson, Their Progenitors and Their Posterity”. As a teenager, only recently active in the Church, I was excited to learn my ancestors were known including royalty who traced back to Adam! Before computers we had to rely upon “professional genealogists”. With Internet access to PRONI (Provisional Records of Northern Ireland) anyone can now look at the original records from any home computer. The Family Group Sheet for James McDonald’s family is accurate as it is taken from original documents in the custody of family members who have made digital copies available on Family Search. But the poorly sourced records of the “professional genealogist” Brian Leese were proven inaccurate, at best and often totally fictitious! The marriage record found by another Irish genealogical researcher Ivy Pembleton was well sourced and verified when compared with PRONI records on line. Ivy (an Irish lass) also confirmed the “McDonnell” spelling is common in Ireland.
