I recently ran across the following, in the book "Vanishing British Columbia" by Michael Kluckner (UBC Press, Vancouver, www.ubcpress.ca; ISBN 0-7748-1125-0; published 2005), about early settlers on Denman Island, off the coast of British Columbia, near Vancouver. Mention is made of descendants still in the area, and photographs are included of some family groups in the early 1900s. "Of the historic places, Orkney Farm evokes the pastoral west coast - a paradise of mild bright winters and dry summers - as well as any surviving landscape. Besides the barn, outbuildings, hedgerows, old shade trees and hay meadows, there is an orchard of old-fashioned fruit trees including Bosc pears and apples such as Cox's Orange Pippin and Gravenstein. Today it is a working farm of 76 acres, operated by stewards Marlena and Dale Merrick, still bearing an air of self-sufficiency typical of early British Columbia homesteads. Tom CHALMERS came from the Orkney Islands in 1897 to homestead the land and spent the next three years building the house, completing it in time for the arrival of his fiancee. His brother Jack bought the property to the south and built a similar house and barn, still extant but renovated more than Tom's. Two brothers bought the two houses in 1929; Jack ISBISTER bought Tom's while Tom ISBISTER bought Jack's. The father of Tom Isbister's wife, William BAIKIE, had arrived on Denman in 1888 and like Tom Chalmers bought part of the early preemption of Charles McFarlan. Isbister logged, established an apple orchard, and continued shipping milk and cream to Comox until the 1960s, when he switched to beef ." Anyone see a connection? Please visit my transcriptions of records for 30 Kirkwall area families in the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries, on the Orkney Family History Society members' page at www.orkneyfhs.co.uk Ken Harrison North Vancouver, Canada Unless specifically stated otherwise in this message, there is no intentional attachment on this e-mail transmission.