Hi George, it's been a long time since we talked - we linked through your Agnes JAMIESON of Inkerman Croft and husband James GEDDES of my Fordyce crowd. I'm only indirectly interested in the Auchinreath GEDDES, in the context of trying to establish a link - any link - with my two separate Geddes lines in Fordyce parish, one in the farms around Fordyce village and one in Portsoy. No luck so far! Your mention of <James GEDDES m. 28 Nov 1775 Anne JAMIESON>: I have a list of early Bellie baptisms, very kindly supplied by Ian Scott, where this couple are listed with two children. They're actually too late to be linked to my main Fordyce lot. Because I've taken so long to reach this Moray Digest, I've rather lost the thread. What's the background to your saying that George Geddes in Auchinreath was his grandfather? I presume your starting point is the Bellie MI 143 (thanks to you for giving these MIs to me years ago!), which was erected by James Geddes N Auchinreath in memory of George JAMESON and Katherine INNES. By looking at the Bellie baptism list, I can come up with this as a hypothetical ancestry: 1775: James Geddes m Ann Jamieson, and had two children, Nether Auchinreath. 1751: He could be James Geddes born 4-6-1751 to John Geddes and Margaret Wiseman, Nether Auchinreath. 1726: John Geddes could be bpt 30-10-1726 to Alexander Geddes and Helen Gallie, Nether Auchinreath. I can't see an equivalent likely route back to a George Geddes. Am I in the right ballpark, or am I waffling? And there's no linkage back (that I can see) from another mega-Geddes line in Fordyce back to these Auchinreath Geddeses, despite that both Alexander GEDDES (s/o John GEDDES and Ann MURDOCH) and his wife Helen GARDEN died Auchinreath 1885 age 77 and 67 respectively. And then there's brother James GEDDES (born abt1794 Bellie s/o John GEDDES and Ann MURDOCH) who married Ann Geddes (born abt1792 Bellie d/o Andrew GEDDES and Margaret THOMSON) and farmed Smerrick. Which brings us back round to a recent Moray-List thread regarding William GEDDES (another son of John GEDDES and Ann MURDOCH) who married Catherine GEDDES and who also died at Auchinreath. But, George, if you can group these early Bellie-ites into a coherent set of families, I'd be delighted! When I look at the array of names, I just want to have a nice cup of tea and a sit down (to quote the web site of that very name...) Regards Howard