Donald William “Billy” MacMillan Sr.

Island story

Donald William “Billy” MacMillan came to Pictou Island from Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island, and became the head of a large Island family with his wife Anna Jane MacLean. Census, civil and family evidence identifies nine children in the household and later family network. The MacMillans were closely connected with the Island fishery, and their descendants continued fishing into later generations. PIHS-approved interpretive history also remembers Billy in the story of the Island hearse: his remains were returned to the Island by ferry and he was remembered as the last person carried in the old hearse. His Church Cemetery memorial records the years 1887–1964. The original marriage registration records Donald William MacMillan and Anna Jane MacLean marrying at Pictou on 9 December 1910. It describes him as a 23-year-old bachelor farmer, names Angus and Anna as his parents, and records a PEI birthplace/residence whose place-name reading is qualified; it is not silently substituted for Wood Islands. Anna Jane’s 1971 death registration names her late husband as William MacMillan and identifies their son Charles as informant, corroborating the existing family identity.