Sue, I apologize for the delayed response. Wilmington is the port where many of the Scottish immigrants landed. Now in Hanover Co., Wilmington was part of the port of New Brunswick. The highlanders were the only large goup to immgrate directly to North Carolina, the rest coming from Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The largest exodus from Scotland came after the Scots' defeat at the battle of Culloden in 1745. The British imprisoned many of the Scots, appropriated their land, forbade the wearing of tartans, and forced the Highlanders to pledge allegiance to the Crown as a condition of release from prison. From that point until the Revolutionary War, Scots immigrated into North Carolina "in hordes," most of the settling near the Cape Fear River. Unlike other American colonists, the Scots still looked at themselves as British subjects and felt obligated by their pledges to the Crown. So many of North Carolina Scots became Tories, under the leadership of Flora McDonald and her husband, and had a few skirmishes with the rebelling milita. Scots not only flooded into North Carolina with like-sounding given names surnames; they also married cousins or other kin with the exact-same surnames. Thus Camerons married Camerons, McDonalds married McDonalds, etc. My advice to you would be to start with yourself and work back, avoiding the temptation to start with a certain ancestor and working down to you. By starting with yourself, you'll have better control over the outcome you seek and more concrete evidence of your ancestry. You'll find a lot of help in the Internet, both free and for-fee. Other sources would be county courthouses, local libraries, state libraries, the Latter-Day Saints (LDS) libraries, past issue of local newspapers, cemeteries, the National Archives and Records Administration, passenger ship logs, service records (with Union records being in NARA and Confederate records by state). I hope I haven't bored you with stuff you already know. I just thought I'd share my personal experience that having big family trees is not enough. You should focus on points you're trying to make or stories you trying to tell. Interviews of the old folks would then help point your way. Then get as much as you can of the original source records and evidence published by academic historians. You still will have mistakes -- every family has skeletons they had rather leave in the closet -- but you will be able to substantiate your work. Of course, that's easier said than done. I've inherited three large volumes of family history. Trouble is, I don't know fact from wishful thanking -- embellished stories -- so deeper research should be done. I live near tremendous resources at the LDS Washington Temple, the Census Burea, NARA, Library of Congress, colleges and universites. All I lack is time. I'm not good at check this e-mail account every day. I do check wjcaligan@hotmail ever day and william.j.caligan@trw.com every workday. Bill Caligan