G'day Jan I noticed that you are researching the SHEARER name. Have you come across a Mary SHERAR [ an alternate spelling of Shearer] b. abt. 1806 in Shapinshay? Mary married William SCOTT on 7-11-1827 on Eday, and they and their children emigrated to Australia in 1849. Different Islands to your family I know, but worth checking Regards Peter Coffee Camp NSW Australia >Thanks for the info Shyama. Yes I was one of the very first to purchase the >fiche of the 1851 census of Walls and Flotta from David. We connected >through the Genealogical Research Directory in 1990 as we were researching >the same surname in Orkney and are something like 8th cousins. >Unfortunately, or fortunately, my relations all seem to come from Walls and >Flotta with a few moving to Orphir and only spreading out to mainland >Scotland and other parts of the world around 1900+. The names I am >researching are Smith, Nicholson, Sinclair, Groat, Ritch, Shearer, Thomson, >Robson. Further back they came from Caithness around early 1700's and that >is where I have come to a dead end. > >Regards, >Jan Grant