Liz wrote: > Hi All, > I have an ancestor who according to the 1881 census was born in Pomona Orkney, but everything I have found about her says that she was born in Stromness. Unfortunately my geography knowledge is not great and I have never heard of somewhere called Pomona. please can SKS enlighten me a bit. > thanks in anticipation > Liz Langmann ( Campbell) > Cape Town South Africa Liz, Pomona is just an alternative name for the largest of the Orkney Islands that is usually called Mainland. Here's what Sigurd Towrie says: "The principal island is now simply referred to as "the Mainland" - a corruption of the Old Norse "Meginland". The island was originally referred to as "Hrossey" - "Horse Island" in Old Norse. The erroneous name "Pomona" can still sometimes be seen on the occasional modern map but this stems from a seventeenth century cartographical error and has never been used by Orcadians." Source here: http://www.orkneyjar.com/orkney/ Norman Tulloch