Harold S. MacLeod (1927-2016) was born in Lyndale, PEI and worked on the farm after completing school. After serving in the Canadian Forces during World War Two, he worked in various trades and professions in Ontario and Prince Edward Island before becoming administrator of Riverside Manor (a long-term care facility) in Montague, Prince Edward Island, until retirement. He also served as mayor of Montague for one term.

Harold was always interested in family lineage and learned much of it orally from his father, training his memory. He first started organizing his research in the early days of personal computers. The MacLeods of Prince Edward Island, a comprehensive genealogy of all the MacLeod families who first landed on Prince Edward Island after leaving Scotland, was first published in 1983, then republished several times. The 2017 Selkirk Stories edition incorporates changes that Harold MacLeod had made to his book after the last printing but had never published. He is also the author of The Lamonts of Lyndale