Hello Listers, I'm new to this list, and following Peter Cooks invitation, thought I would post my surname interests in the hope that one of you might spot something familiar in my info. I've only recently discovered that I have ancestors in Arran. My gt. grandfather William Dickie (1861-1923), was born to Catherine Crawford of Kilmory, Arran (1840-1919) on 1 August 1861 at her uncle John's house in Ardrossan. In all documention, William's father is named as Thomas Dickie, but I can find no trace of Thomas. Certainly, it looks as if Catherine didn't marry Thomas Dickie. Catherine later married farmer, John Cook (1831->1919) at West Bennan, Arran on 28 December 1865, and had a further 4 children - Alexander (1866- ?); Jean (1870-?); John (1867-?) and Donald (1872-?) Catherine was the 2nd child of farmer, John Crawford (1806-1862) and Ann Stewart (1812-1907), daughter of farmer, William Stewart and Catherine Stewart. John's parents were Alexander Crawford (1759-1831) and Christian/Christina Kerr of Kilmory. [Alexander was son of Donald Crawford (born 1738, died at Claughaig, 1814] John and Ann were married at Kilmory, on 27 Jul 1837. They had at least 9 children, including Catherine: 1) Janet (1838-?) 2) Catherine (1840-1919) 3) Christian/Christina (1841-?) - married John Picken on 10 Jun 1869, Kilmory 4) Mary (1844-?) 5) Ann (1847-?) 6) William (1847-?), born Greenock 7) John (abt 1849-?), born Greenock 8) Margaret (1851-?), born Greenock 9) Elizabeth (1853-?), married Hugh Duncan, Glasgow, 1874. At least 2 children: David & John. A little bit about myself - I live in Glasgow, and have been actively researching my family history for about 6-7 years. I'm an IT "techie" (30 yrs - I can hardly believe it - when I started work, computers were steam-driven!), so I use the internet, and lists like this, a lot in my research. I have many Family History resources - Data CDs and books, collected over the years. If anyone needs look-ups etc for the Glasgow Area, or 1881 UK census, 1851/1861 census for Ayrshire, just give me a shout. For anyone with Scots-Irish ancestry, you might care to look at my website at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Scottish-Irish-Genealogy/ Sorry about the long post. If you get this far - Thanks for persevering! Hope this rings a bell for someone out there! Cheers, Eleanor Strain. RAOGK volunteer for Glasgow Area "Volunteer for Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness at http://www.raogk.org/"