I've cross-posted this email to two lists, in case anyone might have an answer. I have been quite successful in tracing my Douglas ancestors back, to a wedding in 1761 of a James Douglas and a Christian McGregore, in the parish of Dull, Perthshire. I was recently in Dundee visiting the Tay Valley Family History Society, and they suggested that this was probably as far back as I am going to get - and I agree with this, although it doesn't stop me looking. I guess my first question is this. Douglas is essentially a name associated with the Borders - so what were my Douglas' doing all the way up in Dull and Blair Atholl - how would they have got there? OK, I know the Douglas' were Earls of Angus and that, in the history of the Douglas', by this time not a lot was happening (most of the exciting Douglas history ending in the C17?) - and Scotland isn't such a large place for people to move around. (Have I answered my own question). Secondly, in the ancestors i am fairly happy about, the spelling is either Douglas or Douglass - and I am happy that this is not an issue. However, I have found that the James Douglas mentioned about had three children - John, Margaret and Hellen. Now, they were born in Blair Atholl parish, and in the general naming conventions of the time, I might assume that James' parents were John and Hellen. Now, in Dull, I can find a John Duglass married to Hellen Stewart, in Dull, 1734, with a James being born to them in 1735. How likely is this to be the folks i am looking for - as opposed to the four or five other Douglas candidates born in Dull/Logirait/other Rannoch parishes? And how likely is the spelling 'Duglass' going to be the same as Douglas or Douglass? (I am guessing this is mostly down to who is righting the entries at the time - but why some many different spellings of the same name - I guess most of these ancestors would be illiterate anyway). Lastly - there are other Douglas' in Dull at around this time. Likely hood of them being related? It is by no means a common name in the area (although appearing in sufficient numbers in Dull and surrounding parishes for it to be a handful). I think my subject title sums up where I am at at the moment, and, short of either a miracle or a time machine (how great would that be), I am sure that anything I find going back now is pure conjecture, but it would be an interesting exercise. Regards and thanks, Andrew. PS James Douglas and Christian McGregore or McGrigore lived in Strathtummel, in an area marked on the map as Borenich. Now, I now roughly where they lived and there is a small burial plot, but this doesn't appear to go back quite far enough. Given age and last child born 1772, they would be dead around 1790 to 1810 probably - where would they have likely been buried? I have checked various memorial books - are there any lists of deaths that i might look at that aren't associated with memorials? (Again, i know the answer here is no, but I'll ask just the same).