Pearl wrote: <quote> My 4th great-grandfather, William Ogilvie, came to Nova Scotia about 1787. I have a copy of his petition for land from the government in that year. I do not know what ship he and his family came on or the port from which they left. William was born circa 1745 - 1748. He was married to Isabella. I have no maiden name for her and I understand Isabella could be a nick-name for Elizabeth or Elsbeth. William and Isabella came to Nova Scotia with children who were baptized in Monquhitter Parish. <end quote> First of all, Isabella is neither a nick-name nor synonym for Elizabeth. It is a variant form. I recommend caution before making any assumptions about its application. Monquhitter OPR will not help very much because there appears to have been more than one William OGILVIE who had children baptised there in the 1760s-1780s but only the father’s name is given in the register entries. On a quick search I could not find a marriage in Monquhitter between William OGILVIE and any Isabel, Isobel, Isabella, etc. – nor any Elizabeth &c. More helpfully, I have OGILVIE connections in Halifax, Little River and Musquodoboit and several folders of information on families in these areas, collected when I was disentangling references to the families in which I was interested from others. If you can let me know the names and locations of your William OGILVIE’s children I will see what I can find. Kind regards, Alyson