D'Escousse is a small village on the northern shore of Isle Madame, in Richmond County, Nova Scotia.  My mother's family, the McDonalds, trace their lineage back to Thomas McDonald, and to his son Edward who was granted Lot #1 at D'Escousse in 1790. Although the name McDonald is not as evident in D'Escousse as it once was, there are many of us who claim descent from these early pioneers.  I myself am the grandson of Leonard T. McDonald who was born in D'Escousse in 1878.

I have been compiling information on our McDonald family for over 40 years. I published an early version of my work in 1980, and have been updating it ever since. But because the McDonalds are so closely intertwined with other families of D'Escousse such as Poirier, Samson, Josse [Joyce], Burke, and Baccardax, I began tracing all the families of D'Escousse several years ago, but since the members of the ILMADAME Listserv have been doing such a good job of that, I have stopped and now only concentrate on my own family lines.