Posted on: Buteshire Scotland Queries Board URL: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/Scotland/Bute?read=374 Surname: CUNNINGHAM, ROBERTSON, GILKISON ------------------------- I am one of the Cumbrae Cunninghams. I have my grandfather John CUNNINGHAM [B:1949; D:1922] – baker. Siblings: James CUNNINGHAM (children Jessie, Jean, Robert, John), Robert CUNNINGHAM (children Mary, Robert, Jean), Mary CUNNINGHAM, Jean CUNNINGHAM. First marriage to Mary STEWART [D:1889] Children: Thomas CUNNINGHAM (M: Alice LITTLE ch James, John), John CUNNINGHAM, James CUNNINGHAM (M: Wilhelmina GILKERSON ch John [Jack]). Second marriage to Barbara CAMERON [B:1862, D:1941]. Children: my father John CUNNINGHAM [B:13 Jul 1898 Millport, D:27 Aug 1987 Canterbury, Kent] – seagoing radio operator [1916-1936] and BBC engineer [1936-1961]. Siblings: Daniel CUNNINGHAM [B:1900, D:1978] – master baker, Alec CUNNINGHAM [B:1902, D:1979, M: Jenny BARBOUR ch Cameron] – baker, Robert CUNNINGHAM [B:1905, D:1989, M: Agnes SHIELDS [B:1911, D:1994] ch Sheila, John] – baker, joiner. In 1932 my father married Mary CASSELS [B:26 Jan 1900 Brodick, D:14 Mar 1978 Ramsgate, Kent]. I (another John CUNNINGHAM) was their only child [B:9 Oct 1933, Millport] and on 12 Oct 1963 married Margaret Dunn Fleming GOODWIN [B:29 Oct 1936 Glasgow]. I was a weapons engineer in the Royal Navy [1951-1988]. We have two children: yet another John CUNNINGHAM and Christine Airlie CUNNINGHAM. My parents were at school in Millport with several of the ROBERTSONs of Portrye – a farm in the north of Cumbrae. In the 1930s depression that generation moved to the south of England to lease and run farms in Kent and the New Forest. I visited them in about 1942 at Clobb, near Beaulieu. In 1959, when I was at Chatham, I re-established contact with the five ROBERTSONs who were farming in East Kent: Robert, Alec, John, Betty and Gordon. Only Gordon survives, living in Birchington, Kent. Much of the above information came from my father and hasn’t been checked against other sources. I wonder if the GILKERSON in the above list is a misspelling by my father of GILKISON? The ship name ‘Iolaire’ rings a faint but tantalisingly elusive bell – unfortunately there’s nobody left that I can check with. I’m new to this genealogy game but hope this is understandable and of interest. John