Here are some Canadian place names with Orkney connections. Rae's Strait after Dr John Rae. Towns of Garson Manitoba and Garson Ontario after William Garson, politician and contractor, born in Orkney Also in Ontario, St Ola, Kirkwall and Stromness. In Alberta, Orkney Hills, Scapa, In Saskatchewan, Maeshowe, Little Orkney and Birsay. In British Columbia, Hope may have been named from St Margaret's Hope. Other names worldwide at http://users.tpg.com.au/isanders/orkney/emigration.html Ronald Garson in Ottawa

A suggestion,,try looking for Orkney peculiar surnames. Towns in particular were named after their founders or a leading citizen. For example, almost three fourths of the counties in Texas have Scottish surnames as the name of the county. And a slew of towns and cities,,Dallas, Austin, and Houston just for starters. What you find should give you some idea of where the Orkneyians went when they left Orkney. Don't be surprised if the pattern is substantially different from the Scots. The northern isles were not as impacted by the historical forces that drove the Scots. Not to say that they were "unaffected" by the same factors, clearances, proscription, and searching for a better life, but not in the numbers and not to the extent as south of the Pentland. Also you are dealing with a much smaller identifiable population group. Should be interesting though. We already know you are going to find a bunch in Canada and the northern fringe of the USA. R -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of R GARSON Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2007 10:06 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [ORCADIA] Re (Orcadia) Handy reference information Here are some Canadian place names with Orkney connections. Rae's Strait after Dr John Rae. Towns of Garson Manitoba and Garson Ontario after William Garson, politician and contractor, born in Orkney Also in Ontario, St Ola, Kirkwall and Stromness. In Alberta, Orkney Hills, Scapa, In Saskatchewan, Maeshowe, Little Orkney and Birsay. In British Columbia, Hope may have been named from St Margaret's Hope. Other names worldwide at http://users.tpg.com.au/isanders/orkney/emigration.html Ronald Garson in Ottawa _______________________________________ Orcadia Group Photo Album http://tinyurl.com/28bx9x ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

IT IS difficult if not impossible, for people from afar to conceive the breadth and depth of the historic ties between Canada and Orkney. Seems like every "old" northern community has Orcadians at the roots. The point is that for several generations, Orkney farms gave up their sons and grandsons to come out here with the company, and the large part simply never returned home. The first of my relatives started that migration in the very early 1700's, maybe even earlier, and the last came out in the late 1800's....all with the HBC. Some went home, then missed this place and came out again to stay for good. When I go to Orkney and stand on Wyre or Grimbister or Davie's brig, i get mixed emotions about the Hudson's Bay Company. For while their romantic exploits in exploring this vast land were and are impressive and exciting and wild and free spirited, the men from Orkney were engaged like work horses. The few rations and slim they received for the dangerous and demanding work they did was in many cases the bare minimum compensation and less than fair. Unlike the Brits and many of the southern Scots, you could drop an Orkneyman off with a gun, powder and ball and a few bags of dried peas and a keg of rum, and return a year later to find an encampment and a store of furs. Maybe a few mixwd race bairn too. The 60th parallel life in Orkney was excellent for producing a hardy rugged sort of person, and their water skills were simply undeniable. The massive recruitment drive for Orkneymen became a resented thing in Orkney. I just sold my home ( that has outgrown my single needs) to a fellow and his kin of old country roots here in Ontario, for example, and his heritage is Rendall from Orkney. Orkney is everywhere, and the point is that there are vastly more people with Orkney roots here than will ever live in Orkney itself. Vastly more. I have looked at the recruitment numbers of young men, and they came here with their hormones raging and their health in top form. There are probably a thousand native indian Isbisters here, for example. Orkneymen were huge here, and their genetic footprint is massive. History doesn't seem to underline that somehow. While there are many Orkney names on towns, try looking in the phonebooks! Cheers......Stephen On Sep 30, 2007, at 11:06 AM, R GARSON wrote: > Here are some Canadian place names with Orkney connections. > Rae's Strait after Dr John Rae. > Towns of Garson Manitoba and Garson Ontario after William Garson, > politician and contractor, born in Orkney > Also in Ontario, St Ola, Kirkwall and Stromness. > In Alberta, Orkney Hills, Scapa, > In Saskatchewan, Maeshowe, Little Orkney and Birsay. > In British Columbia, Hope may have been named from St Margaret's > Hope. > Other names worldwide at http://users.tpg.com.au/isanders/orkney/ > emigration.html > > Ronald Garson in Ottawa > > _______________________________________ > Orcadia Group Photo Album > http://tinyurl.com/28bx9x > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ORCADIA- > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message

R GARSON wrote: > Here are some Canadian place names with Orkney connections. > Rae's Strait after Dr John Rae. > Towns of Garson Manitoba and Garson Ontario after William Garson, politician and contractor, born in Orkney > Also in Ontario, St Ola, Kirkwall and Stromness. > In Alberta, Orkney Hills, Scapa, > In Saskatchewan, Maeshowe, Little Orkney and Birsay. > In British Columbia, Hope may have been named from St Margaret's Hope. > Other names worldwide at http://users.tpg.com.au/isanders/orkney/emigration.html > > Ronald Garson in Ottawa That's a good list, Ronald, together with the ones on the link you gave. It's a little surprising that no one's come up with any Orkney names in Australia or New Zealand, since I thought that both places had had quite a number of Orcadian immigrants in the past — maybe particularly NZ? Norman Tulloch

Mount Norquay in Banff, Alberta comes immediately to my mind. Named after John Norquay, Premier of Manitoba, there's some fine skiing there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Norquay Christine Norquay San Rafael, CA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This e-mail message from State Compensation Insurance Fund and all attachments transmitted with it may be privileged or confidential and protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, or taking any action based on it is strictly prohibited and may have legal consequences. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy the original message and all copies. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~