Alethea, I have quite a lot of information on your Runciman family as Thomas and Mary Ridpath's son, William, married my husband's relative, Elizabeth Hastie whom he met on board an an emigrant ship sailing to America. They were married on 11 December 1850 in Ravenna, Ohio. The next year they moved to Iowa and settled in Allen Township, Warren County with several other Hastie relatives. William Runciman and Elizabeth's Hastie relatives along with John Wood, husband of Mary Runciman who had emigrated to America in 1850 too, were almost the first naturalized citizens in Warren County, Iowa. You have lots of Runciman relatives out in Iowa and I can send you a copy of an article from the history of Iowa about the Runciman family and their descendents. Back to Thomas. He is said to be the son of Thomas Runciman and to have been born in Dunbar in 1791. He lived in Spott, East Lothian, at the time of his marriage to Mary Redpath who came from the parish of Bunkle and Preston in Berwickshire. they were married on 5th december 1812 at Innerwick where she was living. Her brother, John acted as witness at her marriage, and his father , thomas acted as witness for him. In the mid 1850s Thomas and Mary followed their children, William Runciman and Mary Wood to Iowa but not long after Mary Redpath Runciman died on 6th July 1859 and was the second person to be buried in Scotch Ridge Cemetery, Iowa. Thomas is said to have pined for his native land and to have returned there to live with his other daughter (not sure whether this means Jean or Catherine), her husband and his grandchildren. Before they went to America they had been living in Coldstream so maybe they are there on 1851 and even 1841 censuses. Mary Runciman, their daughter, and John Wood were married at Coldstream in 1850.. Presumably he died in Scotland so you should be able to find his death certificate and thus his parents names. If you let me have your snail mail address offlist I will send you a copy of the article where the information is from. Hope this is helpful and that you don't know all this already. Which child are you descended from? My husband is descended from the Hasties who stayed in Scotland. Regards, Diana Leitch Manchester, UK Date forwarded: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 12:28:27 -0700 From: "alethea.starfleet" <alethea.starfleet@tinyworld.co.uk> Subject: Runciman Date sent: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 20:31:26 +0100 To: BORDER-L@rootsweb.com Forwarded by: BORDER-L@rootsweb.com Hello everyone. Can anybody help me please. I am trying to search for a Thomas RUNCIMAN who married Mary RIDPATH (1812, Innerwick). They had sons Thomas, John and William, and daughters Catherine, Mary and Jean. I need to find out where they lived on the 1841 and 1851 census reports, however I do not have access to either. I think they lived in the Berwickshire/East Lothian area as John, their son was married to Isobel Palmer (Pilmuir) in 1840 in Ladykirk, Berwick. All of Thomas's children were christened in different parishes such as Coldingham, Innerwick, Oldhamstocks. I really want to find Thomas's parents and hopefully they might have been living with him at the time of the census of 1841 in particular. If anyone comes accross the RUNCIMAN name I would love to hear about it- my family is very vast and it would take an awful long time to write down everyone I am trying to trace. I am only searching for RUNCIMAN's but if there is any info on the spouses of RUNCIMAN men or women I would also be interested. Thank you for taking the time to read this and good luck with your own searches. Alethea. Diana M. Leitch http://www.leitch.u-net.com/diana