The year is 1881 and Archibald McDonell’s family is still prospering.
Archie, Mary, Angus, Ronald, John, Ellen and Alexander are all alive and living in the Chichester area. Unfortunately, no baby George is mentioned in this census.
Source: 1881 Canadian Census, Chichester, Pontiac Co., Quebec. Dist. 98 (Chapeau Village) Canadian Film #T13226, pg. 23.
Line 3 to 9: 82/85 McDonell, Archibald, Male, age 45, born Ontario, Catholic, Scotch, Lock Master, Married. McDonell, Mary, female, age 42, born in O, Catholic, Scotch, Married. McDonald, Angus, male, age 16, born Quebec, Catholic, Scotch. McDonell, Ronald, male, age 14, born Quebec, Catholic, Scotch. McDonell, John, male, age 11, born Quebec, Catholic, Scotch. McDonald, Ellen, female, age 9, born Quebec, Catholic, Scotch. McDonell, Alexander, male, age 7, born Quebec, Catholic, Scotch. All children going to school.
This is the only time that all of the family are listed together as a whole in the Canadian census, after this the children begin leaving home.
There is an interesting piece of information on this census. Archie is listed as the Lock Master. There will be more on that topic in the next post.
BJ MacDonald
The Man Who Lived Airplanes 
Hi there. I stumbled upon your blog because I googled my boyfriend, Hugh McDonell, looking for some of his rugby stats. I started reading your blog and realized your family is essentially his family. His family, the McDonells, reside in Glengarry, Ontario and as far as I know, and from what you’re writing about, his relatives and your’s are the same people! If you would like to get in contact feel free to email me! This is so interesting !
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Hello bp: Thanks for stopping by. McD’s migrated to the Glengarry area of Ontario starting in the late 1700’s. My family is very old for coming to Canada in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. I have made it back to my great grandfather Archibald McDonell and his wife Mary McDonell (Same last name and possibily cousins) on my grandfather Ronald (R.S.) McDonald’s side. On great grandmother Mary’s side I have Alexander John McDonell and Ellen McPherson for her parents. I am slowly figuring out the family. There are charts done by my Aunt Nellie and you need to go and take a look at them. Here is Mary’s side https://macdonellfamily.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/nellies-charts-her-mother-marys-family/ This is the link to the post for Archie’s side which is the hardest one yet for me to find his siblings. https://macdonellfamily.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/nellies-charts-her-father-archie-mcdonells-family/ Now I do have a Hugh McDonell who married a https://macdonellfamily.wordpress.com/?s=Hugh+McDonell You are going to have to study carefully because there are lots of McD’s and various spellings that settled in the Glengarry area of Ontario. My family became part of the Glengarry McD’s who went up the Ottawa River and did the lumbering. Thank you for sharing and let me know if anything comes up. Bonnie
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