McLennan Family Fond
Our Project
Research for this project was primarily conducted at the University of British Columbia’s Rare Books and Special Collections Library. From the McLennan Family Fonds, we have selected photographs, journal entries, and other documents pertaining to the lives of eight McLennan family members: John, Hugh, John Stewart, William, Francis, Alice, Bartlett, and Isabella. We have created a family tree displaying to help visualise this generation, as well as providing profiles for each family member, outlining their personal lives, accomplishments, and contributions.
Who are the McLennans?
In 1802, Murdoch McLennan, a landowner from Kintail, Scotland, emigrated to Québec, Canada with his wife Christina and their children. The family moved to Glengarry County, Ontario, after the death of Murdoch McLennan. Eventually they came to Montréal, Québec, where Hugh, John, and John Stewart worked within the transportation industry for a firm founded by Hugh and John. Several other McLennan descendants (William, Francis, and Isabella) would attend McGill University, where they would make different contributions in law, philanthropy, and literature.
Our Mission
To contribute to public knowledge about the McLennans and the impact they had in Canada throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, in particular add information about their personal lives as this type of information has very restricted public accessibility. This particular generation of the McLennan family has made significant contributions to both the transportation industry, the Canadian army and the scholarly community, through McGill University. Therefore we hoped to make the relationships between different family members clear by producing a family tree and provide some of this personal information on a profile combined with the professional attributes. By following the geneaology of this very influential Canadian family, we hope to make the private McLennan family legacy more accessible and give insight into how they helped shape certain aspects of the Canada we see today.
Works cited
Shriver, Chelsea. McLennan Family Fond. RBSC Archives. Rare Books and Special Collections University of British Columbia. Web. 5 Feb. 2016.