I have found a little more information about the shipbuilders and some good websites. William Laird started the shipyards in Birkenhead in 1824 and laid the beginnings of the town as a grid pattern with Hamilton Square at the commercial center. URL: http://www.vwlowen.demon.co.uk/wirral/wirral.htm His son was John Laird and their yard made fine ships from 1824 onward. Perhaps its most famous vessel was the warship and raider, the "Alabama". She was purchased by the Confederates in the American civil war and had a short career sinking merchantmen of the Northern Union States. The Alabama was finally sunk by the Union battleship "Kearsarge" in the Bay of Biscay in 1864. John Laird was Birkenhead's first mayor in 1877. His statue stands in Hamilton square, one of the finest 19th century squares in Britain. URL: http://www.cavendish.demon.co.uk/birkenhead/index.htm Birkenhead Town Hall is located in Hamilton Square, one of Wirral's finest architectural attractions. It was opened in 1887 by John and William Laird - Birkenhead's great shipbuilding pioneers - and served as the administrative centre of the town until 1974. URL: http://www.merseyworld.com/wirral_tourist/wirral6.html There is a picture of Hamilton Square and the Town Hall opened by the Lairds at URL: http://www.vwlowen.demon.co.uk/wirral/birkhall.htm The more recent genealogy of the Birkenhead shipbuilders can be found at URL:http://www.ozemail.com.au/~wardjc/glengyle.htm. It does not show William Laird's father, but the IGI on line shows his father as John Laird born 1754 W.Greenock, Renfrew, Scotland. There are two books on the yard, now known as Cammell Laird. "Cammell Laird: The Golden Years" by - by David Roberts. Foreword by Frank Field MP. A look back at the world famous shipyard's history with particular focus upon the 1960s and 70s when Lairds were engaged in the building of Polaris Nuclear submarines. A unique look at the history of this yard that contains many photographs and references. URL: http://www.avidpublications.co.uk/lairds_golden.html The second book also by David Roberts is Life At Lairds An enormously successful book documenting the memories of working shipyard men. It is about what life was like for the ordinary people who worked in Cammell Lairds shipyard, through two World Wars to the present day. These are the voices of some of the men who built the ships that carried the navies and the food, the coal and the iron, and the weapons of war. The ships that are part of the history of Britain. There are some good sites on the Alabama with reference to the Laird Shipbuilders. "CSS Alabama, the birth of a raider", URL: http://www.gardenroute.org.za/shipyard/ships/alabama/alabama_history.htm. Plans of the "Alabama" can be found at URL: http://www.slis.ua.edu/tgtest/cssala/LOWDECK.HTM There is a good picture of the shipyard at URL: http://www.slis.ua.edu/tgtest/cssala/LAIRD2.HTM And an interesting report by the Union spies at the shipyard at URL: http://www.slis.ua.edu/tgtest/cssala/SPY.HTM There is an account of MacGregor Laird (1808-1861) and his African discoveries, having sailed to Africa in a ship of his own design. One of the elders at Canisbay Kirk (I think Robert Sinclair, the owner of the "Last House Museum at John O'Groats, once a Laird home) in 1993 told us that the shipbuilders were of the Caithness Laird Family, but I can only get the line back to Renfrewshire. Good browsing! Yours aye Iain Laird