In a message dated 4/18/00 11:11:50 AM GMT Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: << I am looking for a Ninian Stewart born C1795. Have researched all the Ninian Stewarts on I.G.I. and have a feeling that the one I want is the son of Robert Stewart and Elizabeth Bannatyne. How do I prove it as Ninian was a Fisheries Officer, working firstly in Orkney where he had an illeg.son and the witness was a Bannantyne. He then went to Shetland and presumed drowned around 1838. He lived in the Fishery Officers House in Grobsness in Shetland. Anyone ever heard of him? He called his only son Robert. >> You need to search more than the IGI ........ try the Scots Origins online site, or the LDS Scots Church records cd rom. Then if you still think Ninian son of Robert is yours, you need to research that record and make sure this Ninian did not grow up and marry someone else ..or, indeed, not grow up but die at the age of 6! Then trace the Bannatyne witness.......... would be significant if he/she turned out to be linked to the mother. Don't just assume, please, that the way you end up the wrong tree <g> Irene