Dear all, I'm a newcomer to this list, but know that I will recognise some of you from other lists, and from the archives I see names of people I've corresponded with before. I'm Jenny Blain, and my Ayrshire names are Mushet or Muschet, Adam, Hamilton and (possibly going back a good way) Blain and Hannay. My Blains were in Inch parish in Wigtownshire in the late 18th century and possibly a while before that, but may have earlier been around Barr or Barrhead, or may have been closely related to the Blains there. The Mushets in Kilmarnock are descendents of Henry Mushet who came from Perthshire with his wife Janet Denivan, living first in Ochiltree (1735) and then Tarbolton (1738) before coming to Kilmarnock (by 1742). All the later Mushets around Kilmarnock seem to be descended from this couple. James Mushet, nailer, son of Henry and Janet, married Janet Adam by 1772. (They were reprimanded for ante-nuptual fornication.) I think Janet was the daughter of James Adam and Margaret Johnston, born in Kilmarnock in 1747, but don't have further information on her. And finally, I'm descended from John Mushet, nailer, son of James amd Janet, born 1784, who married Jean Hamilton in Kilmarnock in 1802. Their son John Wallace Mushet, b. 1804, later header for Paisley, then Glasgow and later Greenock. Many of the family seem to have been iron-workers - iron moulder, nailer, engine fitter and so on. An exception was William (son of Henry Mushet and Janet Denivan, married Jean Murdoch in 1778) who was a shoemaker. That's enough for now! I've got quite a bit more on these Mushets. What I don't have is about Jean Hamilton and her family, and the parents of Janet Adam. All best, Jenny

Dear Jenny, I too have an interest in the Mushet family you mention. Agnes Mushet (daughter b 1787 of the William Mushet shoemaker you mention) married Robert Boyle (gardener) in Kilmarnock 1806. Their granddaughter Helen Boyle (daughter of John Boyle, brickmaker) married my great grandfather John Humphrey in 1871. Agnes' brother George, like William, became a shoemaker. Although he's in the 1841 census, unmarried, I've found no trace of him thereafter. I have an additional link through Janet Blair - a daughter b <1810> of Archibald Blair & Henrietta Mushet (b 1792, a daughter of James Mushet and Janet Adam) - who in 1837 married another Boyle, John's brother William, a Kilmarnock quarryman. I wonder if you have any further Boyle or Mushet information? My curiosity was piqued when I found the handwritten 1790 birth certificate of George Mushet among my grandfather's papers, without knowing what family connection there was. Best regards John (in Canada)