At 02:15 AM 2/14/99 GMT, you wrote: >Could someone who has the book on Orkney surnames please tell me what >it says for Pottinger and for Cormack. Thanks > Hi Susan, Cormack is listed as an old gaelic first name dating back in Orkney to 1600's that it is not common in Orkney today. Pottenger is a common Orkney surname that dates back to 1522 and is derived from pottager "which came to mean 'a herbalist': most probably an introduced surname. An interesting piece of folklore surrounds the Pottinger surname in Orkney. It is said that the first Pottingers (to come to Orkney?) came to the east mainland parish of Deerness to work in a quarry. While they were working a raven swooped down and made off with one of their caps. Angered by this the men gave chase and it was a good job they did! Not long after leaving the quarry face to retrieve the stolen cap there was a rockslide that would have surely killed them." Gregor Lamb's Orkney Surnames copyright Gregor Lamb 1981 Regards, Anne Rendall volunteer listower Orkney-L host Orkney GenWeb http://rendall.net/orkney/