106627: Marion MacCuish

Marion, born about 1839, was the daughter of Angus MacCuish and Catherine Paterson of old Borve, Berneray. She doesn’t appear in the 1861 or 1871 censuses for Berneray, but in 1866 married Andrew MacRae on the island. At that time she was working as a domestic servant. Together they were to have eleven children, the first three of whom were born on Berneray. They made their home in Lochmaddy and later North Glendale, South Uist.

Two of their younger children, Peggy and Mary, were good friends of Margaret Fay Shaw, and supplied her with several songs for the book Folksongs and Folklore of South Uist. With a mother born on Berneray, it is highly likely that some of their songs and tales derived from the island.