Post by mary on Sept 27, 2019 14:22:48 GMT
Donald Trump will star in Songs of Praise as BBC religious show focuses on his roots in Outer Hebrides
The president elect has connections to the Outer Hebridean island of Lewis
He visited the island once as a child but says he remembers very little of it
Mr Trump's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod was born at Tong near Stornoway
The family were fishermen and his great-grandfather drowned in an accident
By Paddy Dinham For Mailonline
Published: 12:59 EDT, 11 January 2017 | Updated: 19:21 EDT, 11 January 2017
Donald Trump's roots on his mother's Scottish island are to be featured in BBC religious show, Songs of Praise, just days before he becomes American President.
The programme on Sunday looks at Mr Trump's family connections to the Outer Hebridean island of Lewis.
Mr Trump's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod was born on the island at Tong, near Stornoway.
The president elect has connections to the Outer Hebridean island of Lewis
He visited the island once as a child but says he remembers very little of it
Mr Trump's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod was born at Tong near Stornoway
The family were fishermen and his great-grandfather drowned in an accident
By Paddy Dinham For Mailonline
Published: 12:59 EDT, 11 January 2017 | Updated: 19:21 EDT, 11 January 2017
Donald Trump's roots on his mother's Scottish island are to be featured in BBC religious show, Songs of Praise, just days before he becomes American President.
The programme on Sunday looks at Mr Trump's family connections to the Outer Hebridean island of Lewis.
Mr Trump's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod was born on the island at Tong, near Stornoway.
(photo) Donald Trump at the house in Tong, on the Isle of Lewis, where his mother was brought up before she emigrated to the United States
Donald Trump at the house in Tong, on the Isle of Lewis, where his mother was brought up before she emigrated to the United States
The billionaire visited his mother's house and his cousins in 2008 after flying in on his private Tristar with 'Trump' emblazened on its side.
On that trip, the president-elect revealed that he had been to Lewis once before as 'a three or four year old' but, not surprisingly, could remember little about it and promised to return with his youngest son Barron.
One thing that Mr Trump has in common with adherents of the old religion on Lewis is that he takes the pledge and does not drink.
He suffered the horror of watching his own brother Freddy die of alcoholism, which reinforced whatever strictures he absorbed at his mother's knee.
The ecclesiastical history of the island during his mother's youth is to be explored in Songs of Praise with an examination of the spiritual revival movement in the first half of last century.
With hymn singing from Stornoway High Church, the show is broadcast on BBC1 at 4.30pm on Sunday.
On his last trip to Lewis, Mr Trump was accompanied by his eldest sister Maryanne Trump Barry, a US Federal judge, who has regularly visited her cousins on Lewis.
The billionaire visited his mother's house and his cousins in 2008 after flying in on his private Tristar with 'Trump' emblazened on its side
The billionaire visited his mother's house and his cousins in 2008 after flying in on his private Tristar with 'Trump' emblazened on its side
In 2015, she donated nearly £160,000 to a care home in Stornoway - in memory of her mother.
Together with a one-off funding allocation from the Scottish Government, the donation has resulted in nine new care home beds at Bethesda Care Home.
Mr Trump's mother died in August 2000 at the age of 88, but had returned to Lewis regularly before her death.
His grandfather Malcolm MacLeod was said to be a fisherman and crofter at Tong.
And valuation rolls produced by the National Records of Scotland show that Mr MacLeod was not only a crofter but also set up a shop and post-office in Aird of Tong, supposedly becoming the area's first postmaster.
He clearly had leadership skills - skippering a fishing boat at 17, and one other report says he later became a county councillor.
And if Mr Trump's education policies need any inspiration then he should look no further than his grandfather.
According to another report, Mr MacLeod also served as the 'compulsory officer' to enforce attendance at the local school.
His wife Mary lived until the age of 96 years, dying in 1963 at 5, Tong, while Malcolm died in 1954 aged 87.
However a heartbreaking tragedy also hit the family.
Mr Trump's great grandfather drowned in a fishing accident off Lewis leaving his widow bring up four children.
Among them was Mary MacLeod, Mr Trump's grandmother - Malcolm's wife - who was only one at the time of the tragedy which claimed her father Donald Smith.
Donald was lost in Broadbay, off Vatisker Point near Stornoway when a squall of wind overturned his open boat in 1868.
He was aged 34 and left his widow to carry on the family croft after his death and to bring up their four children, the youngest of whom was Mary.
Two other men - Donald MacLeod and Iain Thomson - also lost their lives. There were two survivors - Donald Maclennan and Angus Smith.
Leading Island genealogist Bill Lawson said he had had repeated requests to research Mr Trump's local family tree - and even one from Visit Scotland.
'The drowning of Donald Smith is a real family tragedy and it is possible Mr Trump was given his first name in his memory,' said Mr Lawson, who runs Co Leis Thu?, the Genealogy Research Service in Northton on the Isle of Harris.
The prehistoric Callanish or Calanais standing stones on Lewis, which are believed to be older than Stonehenge
+3
The prehistoric Callanish or Calanais standing stones on Lewis, which are believed to be older than Stonehenge
'There were a few drownings in the area before they built some kind of harbour at Brevig. In bad weather very often the whole boat went down.
'Vatisker Point was particularly bad because it was where the wind collected.
'Families tended to have much larger groupings then and they would have helped to gather around the widow. But it would have been a tremendous shock and a struggle for them.'
It is not clear if Mr Trump is named after his great grandfather or an uncle, also called Donald.
Mr Trump's mother Mary Anne - who was born in 1912 in Tong - emigrated to America and met and married property magnate Frederick Trump.
She was also a great philanthropist. Mary Anne was the 'mainstay' of the Women's Auxiliary of Jamaica Hospital in New York. She and her husband were also active in the Salvation Army, the Boy Scouts of America and the Lighthouse for the Blind.
They also gave buildings to the National Kidney Foundation of New York and to Community Mainstreaming Associates of Great Neck, New York, which provides homes for the disabled.
Donald Trump at the house in Tong, on the Isle of Lewis, where his mother was brought up before she emigrated to the United States
The billionaire visited his mother's house and his cousins in 2008 after flying in on his private Tristar with 'Trump' emblazened on its side.
On that trip, the president-elect revealed that he had been to Lewis once before as 'a three or four year old' but, not surprisingly, could remember little about it and promised to return with his youngest son Barron.
One thing that Mr Trump has in common with adherents of the old religion on Lewis is that he takes the pledge and does not drink.
He suffered the horror of watching his own brother Freddy die of alcoholism, which reinforced whatever strictures he absorbed at his mother's knee.
The ecclesiastical history of the island during his mother's youth is to be explored in Songs of Praise with an examination of the spiritual revival movement in the first half of last century.
With hymn singing from Stornoway High Church, the show is broadcast on BBC1 at 4.30pm on Sunday.
On his last trip to Lewis, Mr Trump was accompanied by his eldest sister Maryanne Trump Barry, a US Federal judge, who has regularly visited her cousins on Lewis.
The billionaire visited his mother's house and his cousins in 2008 after flying in on his private Tristar with 'Trump' emblazened on its side
The billionaire visited his mother's house and his cousins in 2008 after flying in on his private Tristar with 'Trump' emblazened on its side
In 2015, she donated nearly £160,000 to a care home in Stornoway - in memory of her mother.
Together with a one-off funding allocation from the Scottish Government, the donation has resulted in nine new care home beds at Bethesda Care Home.
Mr Trump's mother died in August 2000 at the age of 88, but had returned to Lewis regularly before her death.
His grandfather Malcolm MacLeod was said to be a fisherman and crofter at Tong.
And valuation rolls produced by the National Records of Scotland show that Mr MacLeod was not only a crofter but also set up a shop and post-office in Aird of Tong, supposedly becoming the area's first postmaster.
He clearly had leadership skills - skippering a fishing boat at 17, and one other report says he later became a county councillor.
And if Mr Trump's education policies need any inspiration then he should look no further than his grandfather.
According to another report, Mr MacLeod also served as the 'compulsory officer' to enforce attendance at the local school.
His wife Mary lived until the age of 96 years, dying in 1963 at 5, Tong, while Malcolm died in 1954 aged 87.
However a heartbreaking tragedy also hit the family.
Mr Trump's great grandfather drowned in a fishing accident off Lewis leaving his widow bring up four children.
Among them was Mary MacLeod, Mr Trump's grandmother - Malcolm's wife - who was only one at the time of the tragedy which claimed her father Donald Smith.
Donald was lost in Broadbay, off Vatisker Point near Stornoway when a squall of wind overturned his open boat in 1868.
He was aged 34 and left his widow to carry on the family croft after his death and to bring up their four children, the youngest of whom was Mary.
Two other men - Donald MacLeod and Iain Thomson - also lost their lives. There were two survivors - Donald Maclennan and Angus Smith.
Leading Island genealogist Bill Lawson said he had had repeated requests to research Mr Trump's local family tree - and even one from Visit Scotland.
'The drowning of Donald Smith is a real family tragedy and it is possible Mr Trump was given his first name in his memory,' said Mr Lawson, who runs Co Leis Thu?, the Genealogy Research Service in Northton on the Isle of Harris.
The prehistoric Callanish or Calanais standing stones on Lewis, which are believed to be older than Stonehenge
+3
The prehistoric Callanish or Calanais standing stones on Lewis, which are believed to be older than Stonehenge
'There were a few drownings in the area before they built some kind of harbour at Brevig. In bad weather very often the whole boat went down.
'Vatisker Point was particularly bad because it was where the wind collected.
'Families tended to have much larger groupings then and they would have helped to gather around the widow. But it would have been a tremendous shock and a struggle for them.'
It is not clear if Mr Trump is named after his great grandfather or an uncle, also called Donald.
Mr Trump's mother Mary Anne - who was born in 1912 in Tong - emigrated to America and met and married property magnate Frederick Trump.
She was also a great philanthropist. Mary Anne was the 'mainstay' of the Women's Auxiliary of Jamaica Hospital in New York. She and her husband were also active in the Salvation Army, the Boy Scouts of America and the Lighthouse for the Blind.
They also gave buildings to the National Kidney Foundation of New York and to Community Mainstreaming Associates of Great Neck, New York, which provides homes for the disabled.
