Thank you, Norman. I do have G. Lamb's book (my site is even used as a reference in it!), but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't seeing some family's special spelling of a particular place name in 1874... I know there is a South Breck on Burray but the 1874 birth register I am looking at certainly seems to read the place name as "South Brooke, Burray". Would you know if "South Breck" when spoken with an Orkney accent could sound like "South Brooke" to a listener's ear? The Registrar at the time, W. T. N. Forbes (James Forbes' son) DID have pretty odd handwriting at times... but I feel that I've gotten pretty used to his handwriting at this point. Sure looks like "South Brooke" -- and this is the first time I've seen that. hhm. I will look into some censuses, and see what I can glean. Thank you! - Lisa

Lisa Conrad wrote: > Would you know if "South Breck" when spoken with an Orkney accent could > sound like "South Brooke" to a listener's ear? I don't know, Lisa, but I suppose it could do. "Brooke" doesn't sound like a very Orcadian place-name to me, and I can't think of any other examples in Orkney of brooke or brook. (Disclaimer: of course, that doesn't mean there aren't any!) "Breck", however, certainly is a common element in Orkney place-names. "Brook" isn't even common in Scottish place-names, though in a gazetteer of Scottish place-names I did come across a Brookfield in Renfrewshire. I'd say that "brook" (meaning a stream) is used much more in England and particularly in the south of England. If there is a South Brooke in Burray and it was pronounced as such, I doubt if it would be an old name and it might perhaps be a nineteenth century invention. There are some pretty improbable names in Orkney, though! It does seem a bit of a coincidence that we can't find a South Brooke but we can find a South Breck/Southbreck. I strongly suspect they're one and the same place, but as you say, a bit of census work may be required to make sure of that. Norman Tulloch