My recent MCLEOD discoveries have boiled down to the following:

Issue baptised to William MCLEOD & Janet HENDERSON at Halkirk parish most of them subsequently marrying in Thurso parish while resident at Achnavast:

17 Feb 1791 Margaret MCLEOD died 1881 = 1809 Thurso parish to John OMAN
27 Jan 1793 Elizabeth MCLEOD died 1866 = 1821 Thurso parish Alexander MORGAN 1795-1875
17 Jun 1795 Catharine MCLEOD died 1886 = 1820 Thurso parish to Peter SINCLAIR, = 1825 Thurso parish to Alexander HENDERSON 1796-1863
11 Mar 1798 David MCLEOD – can’t find him yet.
15 jun 1800 Ann MCLEOD – can’t find her yet.
13 Sep 1801 Janet MCLEOD = 1822 Thurso parish to William MACKAY abt 1803
27 Jan 1805 Andrew MCLEOD died 1883= 1832 Thurso parish to Anne GRANT 1806-1889

For Catharine & Elizabeth's baptisms the parents resided at Harpsdale.

I descend from Catharine MCLEOD's daughter from her first marriage, Catharine SINCLAIR who married David SINCLAIR in 1846 and went to Oz in 1851, their son Peter SINCLAIR marrying Annie MCDONALD in 1876 and going to New Zealand soon after. Peter & Annie are my great grandparents.

Between the baptism of Andrew MCLEOD at Halkirk parish in 1805 and the marriage of Margaret MCLEOD at Thurso parish in 1809, William MCLEOD and Janet HENDERSON must have taken their family to Achnavast in Thurso parish where William was a tenant.

All of the MCLEOD children above resided at Achnavast when they married and their death certs tell us that their parents were William MCLEOD & Janet HENDERSON except that one informant who wasn't of the MCLEOD family got Janet HENDERSON's first name wrong..

The only MCLEOD children proving hard to crack are David bap 1798 and Ann bap 1800. Maybe they died young, moved out of Caithness, emigrated overseas, or remarried after a first marriage. Or maybe I'm not looking hard enough.

A database at Worldconnect with an email that doesn't work has Janet MCKAY 1822-1858 married to James MORE (MOIR) 1816-1884 as the daughter of William MACKAY & Janet MCLEOD, daughter of William MCLEOD in Achnavast, so if anyone is doing them then they can now know that Janet's grandparents were William MCLEOD & Janet HENDERSON.

For years and years I chased the origin of these MCLEODs in Thurso and didn't crack them until the Halkirk connection was realised to be able to piece together the family that Catharine MCLEOD was born into.

No one seems to have put this family together before so I'd better get them out there if I want to to make contacts.

Peter