Hi Alistair I confess I am still unsure exactly what it is you are trying to achieve Your last line is on the button, your story is not so easy to follow as perhaps you had intended, you say you have a brick wall but its not clear (to me at least) what your brick wall is If you are attempting to get the present day SPALDINGs to speak to you , I would give it up now as a lost cause and concentrate on your research Or are you trying to link the Mary CAIRD b1835 to the more illustrious ones? Or are you trying to go back from the Mary CAIRD b1835? It may help if you redo your post in bullet point form , ie what are you trying to achieve and then what do you have so far Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > My maternal line is Spalding. I have traced a branch from a marriage of John > Alexander Spalding b 1828 in Monikie, to Mary Caird b 1835 in Dundee. The > marriage took place in 1857. At this point I should add that I have failed > to find a connection of Mary Caird with James Key Caird, the Dundee > benefactor born Dundee 1837. He was also the prime funder to Shackleton's