Your thoughts are useful Ray. Recalling what Gavin said earlier you have confirmed my reason for bringing this to the List that the cross in the box was not necessarily an indication of illiteracy. Compulsory registration of births, marriages and deaths in Scotland regardless of religion was imposed from 1855 replacing the civil system of by Parish of the Established Church. Education became compulsory in 1870 and the census of 1871 would have revealed how many children there were. So, we have a window between 1855 to 1870 when it is possible people could have been illiterate unless they were strict church goers? Would a child have been taught to write their own name as soon as they could write even if parents were illiterate at the time when children had to be educated. Would there have been a strong statement to make for Gaelic by writing a cross instead of a name in English, if the person knew their name as it would be written in English? I have seen some quite shaky crosses and others very firm. Is there a difference between a cross written by someone who has never hand a writing implement in their hand, and a firm hand by protest I wonder. Janet ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Hennessy" <[email protected]> > Hi Janet and Mary > > I don't know the answer to your question about Gaelic speakers, Janet, but > I do know that Gavin once pointed out that the inability to write didn't > necessarily indicate the inability to read. In the period before say 1900, > the main reading matter for the lower classes would have been a bible and > recognising the words handed down from the pulpit would have been easier > than trying to write without considerable instruction.