Hello List In May 2001 at the height of the Foot & Mouth epidemic we spent a week on the Isle of Arran. My maternal grandmother and her maternal ancestors came from Arran but it was 40 years since I had visited the island. The weather was glorious and we had a wonderful time despite the restrictions because of the Foot & Mouth epidemic. On the Wednesday I visited the Arran Heritage Museum and when I told them that I had ancestors from the island I was taken to the Family History Centre and introduced to the volunteers. Grace Small there gave me all kinds of advice and when I showed her my family tree she gave me the name, address and phone number of a local resident, who she said had researched his family tree way back and had the same surname as one of my ancestors, Watt. I told her that these Watts had come from Ireland and had married into the Hyndman family from Arran. I didn’t think that there were any Watts from my line left on the island as my grandmother’s father, Robert Watt had returned to lasgow, where the rest of his family lived, after my great grandmother’ s death. Anyway, I took a note of the details but did not contact the person. About 6 months later whilst doing some research at New Register House in Edinburgh I found the death certificate for my grandmother’s brother, who I thought had died young but he hadn’t died until 1949, and his death was registered by his son. The name seemed familiar and when I looked up the telephone directory for Arran to see if this person was listed the address also seemed familiar. I immediately looked for the notebook I had taken to Arran and when I checked the details that Grace Small had given me it was the same person that I had found in the telephone directory. I wrote a letter to the person and included my email address. If this was the correct person he would be my mother’s cousin. The next day I received a very friendly email from his daughter who had been visiting her father when my letter arrived. We’ve kept in touch by emil and have since met a few times and I’ve visited her father who did turn out to be my mother’s cousin. I haven’t discovered any more about my ancestors in Arran through this relationship but I have added more branches and leaves and met some very nice relatives that I didn’t know I had. My husband and I were invited to her daughter’s wedding and met other members of the family there. We’ve since spent another couple of holidays on the island and thoroughly enjoy it. I’m only sorry that I didn’t visit it in the 40 preceding years. The people at the Museum are very friendly and helpful so if you are going to Arran do get in touch with Grace Small as I’m sure she’ll help you all she can. Her email address and other information can be found at _http://www.arranmuseum.co.uk/_ (http://www.arranmuseum.co.uk/) . Also talk to the locals as they are very keen to pass on information about the island. The local bookshops and the museum also stock more books on the island than you’ll find anywhere else. The cemetery at Kilmory is also worth a visit. It’s in a beautiful location and it’s always very tranquil there. Margaret Singleton FreeCen Co-ordinator Glasgow and Barony http://members.aol.com/margsi/Glasgow1841.htm