Project MAOL submissions
How to submit your family history for inclusion in Project MAOL.
You can submit your family history for inclusion in Project MAOL either in electronic or paper form - though we would always suggest sending a paper back-up in addition to electronic submissions (we do of course keep electronic back-ups of Project MAOL, but what we put into Project MAOL may not be the whole of what you submit - since we have to concentrate on recording those ancestors born bearing the clan surname - so sending us a paper back-up is always advisable). The closer you keep to our guidelines the quicker it's likely that your information will appear on the website in Project MAOL. Please note however that all information submitted is subject to a process of collation by clan genealogist Graeme Mackenzie which is primarily designed to avoid the duplication of information - i.e. to stop the same individual appearing more than once in the search indexes - but which also allows the spotting of links with existing information, and the possible putting in-touch of hitherto unknown cousins (one of the prime aims of the whole project).
Project MAOL Paper Submission.
This is based on the "Nearest Ancestors" Form included with the CMI Membership Application.
Your name and address.
If you only make a paper submission then your name and address will not go into the Project MAOL files on the Clan Centre computer - though they will be added to our Clan contacts database (which information is never given to anyone outside the clan or used for any purpose other than clan business). The reference code on your Project MAOL submission will appear on the computer and will allow clan researchers to connect with you via the copy of your paper submission kept in the Clan Centre. You may wish to include along with your submission a list of the names and addresses of relatives you already know who are connected to the same line as yourself, which will also be filed with your details - and accessed through your Reference Code. Please note that while genealogical information you submit will be made available to the clan at large, and in certain circumstances perhaps to other genealogical researchers, the names and addresses of you and your relatives will only be sent from to cousins or officers of the clan wishing to contact you.
Reference code.
Your Reference Code will connect you (and your relatives) with your genealogical information in Project MAOL, so it needs to be unique. You can put in whatever eight digits you wish, following the initial PM-P-, but if it turns out that someone else has already used that code we'll alter it ourselves.
The format we've suggested will hopefully create something unique in each case, and it goes as follows:
Start with the first two letters of your country's name (or in the case of your country's name having more than one word, the first letters of the first two, or the two most helpful, words - so US for United States of America, or SA for the Republic of South Africa etc.); then add two letters similarly representing your State/Province or Nation-within-a-Country (so NS for New South Wales or QU for Queensland in Australia; EN for England or NI for Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom; usual two letter postal codes in North America, etc.); then add the initials of your first and last name; and finally complete it with the two numbers of your age (if you're embarrassed about your age, then you may cheat; and if you're over 100, well you deserve to have someone younger to do it for you!). See the graphic below for how this works.
You should end up with an eight-digit reference code similar to this: PM-P-UKSCGM53 - standing in this case for United Kingdom, Scotland, Graeme Mackenzie, 53. In the event of duplication we'll alter the code (making you younger of course!) and let you know the new code we have filed your details under.
Relationship to your nearest M'Millan ancestor.
For the reasons discussed elsewhere - basically keeping numbers to manageable proportions - only those born M'Millan (or a Septname) will be included in the On-Line Search Indices. If you were born M'millan/Septname then simply put "ME" in this space and enter your own details as GENERATION 1. (If you have children or grandchildren born M'millan/Septname, then make one of them Generation 1, and work back from them).
Non-M'millan/Septname descendants should not attempt to list names between you and your nearest M'millan/Septname ancestor in this space, simply put "Grand-daughter", "Great-grand-nephew" or whatever.
Generation 1
Last name: Although your ancestors will be entered in the Summary Files with a standard spelling (M'millan, Millan, Bell, Baxter, Walker etc.) you may use your preferred, or your ancestors' most commonly recorded, spelling here (e.g. McMillin, Mullan, M'Ivoyle, MacBaxter, McNucator etc.) since we will be transferring the information onto the computer - and will then use the standardised form.
Forename(s): Just as there are many ways of spelling M'millan, the same is true of most Scottish given-names (i.e. forenames) - especially as most of your distant ancestors would have used the Gaelic forms. If you have records of your ancestor with different spellings of his/her forename(s), or Gaelic versions, you should enter that form by which he or she was baptised (all individuals born in pre-20th century Scotland will be entered in our indexes, however, with standard English spellings of forenames; with recorded variations noted in the individuals' full entries). Please include in inverted commas (" ") any nick-name or alias associated with any particular ancestor.
Occupation(s): Maximum of two here; further details can be included in your Complete Files.
Dates of birth, death and marriage: Please always enter the month as a word so as to avoid confusion. You must provide at least a date of birth/baptism for every individual, and if that date is not exact and proven (i.e. based on a contemporary church or civil register entry) please be sure to show that it is either an approximate date - usually indicated by the prefix abt for "about" (or perhaps c. for the Latin "circa") - or an estimated date, for which use the prefix est. Approximate dates are usually based on ages given in census entries, on gravestones, or in oral family histories; but estimated ages are calculations based either on the knowledge that an individual was alive at some time - though his/her age at that, or any other time is unknown - or on the year of birth/baptism of that person's eldest child (which in Scotland before the 20th century is likely on average to be 30 to 35 years after the father's birth/baptism, but for emigrants is often more like 20 to 25 years).
This may be complicated, but please don't let that put you off including a date of birth/baptism - even if it is just a year - for every individual in your submission. Remember your "John M'millan" is going to be one of hundreds (indeed thousands) of John M'millans in the Search Indices, and a date of birth/baptism, even if it is only estimated, is the first and most important way to distinguish your ancestor from the many others bearing the same name.
Places of birth, death & marriage: Only Parish/Town, State etc. and Country (house, farm, village and county names are useful to have too - but please supply them separately since space on the form is limited). Again you must at least enter a country here as another means to distinguish between people bearing the same names.
Spouses names: Only enter the spouse from whom you are descended - note any others separately - and always use a wife's maiden surname, not her married surname - unless the two are the same.
Generations 2, 3, 4, 5, and any others.
Please apply the same rules as above, and take care about the numbering of the generations beyond those on the form. Your ancestors' brothers and sisters. Please take care to identify them as the siblings of So-and-so, Generation X, or whatever; and ensure they are also full-siblings. Half-siblings should be clearly indicated as such, and their mother's name included, on separate sheets. Descendants of siblings. Information about these is of course also welcome, and should again be submitted on separate sheets. As the number of generations may not be the same as in your own line, do so without generation numbers; but clearly identify any such line as the descendants of Y brother of So-and-so, Generation X of your line. You can save us a lot of work by providing such additional information; but if you don't provide it in Summary Submission form, let us know that such details are to be found in any full family tree submission.
Download a Project MAOL Submission Form as a PDF.
Please copy these forms, and the notes, to any and all other M'millans or Septname bearers that you know.
Return completed forms to:
Clan MacMillan International Centre
Finlaystone, Langbank
PA14 6TJ, Scotland