Looking for a McKIRDY from Bute must be like looking for a needle in a lorry load of needles, but ..... My GGGgrandfather Archibald McKIRDY was born according to family tradition on Bute, somtime in the 1790's Unfortunately that's the end of the Bute connection, as he next surfaces in Glasgow, when he married a Margaret McDOUGALL from ???? on 15th December 1815. I know little of the rest of his life, he was a joiner/wright by trade and lived in Grahamstown - the legendary village now under Central Station, Glasgow - around 1820. Known children were Margaret - [?1817 - 1885], and John [1819 - ?1882]. Various documents place him in the north side of Glasgow at least until about 1850, although he and most of his family are most likely buried in the Southern Necropolis. Son John married an Ann Vance in 1841. They had about 12 children, but I only know of two definites who reached adulthood, Robert [1852 - 1908], and the second Margaret [b. 1855] and was around at the 1881 Census. Agnes [b.1843] and the second John [b. 1850], second Archibald [b. 1858] and second Ann [b. 1861] might well have survived, but vanished from family records.. Robert had similar bad luck with children, and his two surviving sons, Archibald [1880-1968] and John [1885 - 1917] both had daughters, so the male line died out. Any offers ???? Ross Holmes [Glasgow]