This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/BgC.2ACI/1264.1.2 Message Board Post: I am interested in Cruickshanks with connections to Knockando, because I think that is where mine must have come from. They first appear in Rothes in 1766. I would be very interested in seeing your family group sheet too. My e-mail address is anne-dot-burgess-at-btinternet-dot-com. I think it is highly unlikely that anyone born in Knockando in the late 1700s would name Grantown-on-Spey as their birthplace just because it was the 'nearest big town'. First of all, people's allegiances were to the parish not the town/village, so when they said where they were born they would name the parish (assuming that they knew, of course!). Second, Grantown isn't a big town. It didn't even exist at until after 1774. Fullarton's Gazetteer of 1842 describes it as a 'modern village' and goes on to say, "Previous to the year 1774, the site of this village was a barren and untenanted heath." Third, it isn't even the nearest town. From Knockando Kirk it is about 10 miles to Rothes and about 16 to Grantown. (Of course the same applies to the town of Rothes as to Grantown, namely, it didn't exist either until after 1775; and neither did the villages of Archiestown or Charlestown of Aberlour) So if she gave her birthplace as Grantown-on-Spey in later life she must at least have believed that she was born there, even if it wasn't true. That implies that she must have lived there since early childhood. Of course it might just be that someone else gave the information, and that they thought she was born in Grantown. Cromdale, Inverallan and Advie is a parish formed by uniting three ancient parishes: the parish of Cromdale, the parish of Inverallan and the parish of Advie. Cromdale and Advie are easy enough to find; Inverallan is the part of the combined parish in which Grantown-on-Spey was built. Edinkillie is another parish in its own right. (So is Auchindoir, but it is nowhere near any of the rest of these - it is in Aberdeenshire, south of Huntly. Your family's one may have a similar name - it means something like 'field of the grove', so it would not be surprising to find more than one place with the name). Looking forward to hearing from you.