The Mitchell Family Tree
25 March 2010 - 5:14:35pm

This tree records the family history of a small fraction of the Mitchell family having its roots in Ross and Cromarty in the north east of Scotland. The Mitchells settled in the parish of Tarbat around between 1810 and 1820, attracted by the new fishing station set up round a small harbour at Rockfield just south of Portmahomack. Before this date they could be found in Balintore and the Cromarty area. Although a few of them worked as farm labourers the majority were employed in the fishing trade.

Rockfield was, and still is, a village of around 25 houses strung out beneath a sandy cliff on the south coast of the Tarbat penninsula. In the 19th century it was mainly inhabited by the Mitchell, Ross, McKay, Skinner and Vass families. They seemed to get on well enough judging by the number of village weddings recorded.

In the early 20th century war and a decline in the fishing saw a dispersal of the family and an increased diversity in both their occupations and marraige partners.