Hi Barbara, You should be checking in Scotland if you believe that the story about your ancestor's death on a brief stop over in Ulster is correct. That's where he was born and was baptized. To find him in Scotland or anywhere, for that matter, you will have to gather clues and analyze them. Based on your analysis you will then execute a strategy to locate records (records that exist: too many people waste years looking for records that never existed) to find more clues or prove the ones you have. Since the basis of your family research appears to be a compiled work, your first step is to evaluate the credibility of that work. There are a huge number of records in New England. Probably it is richer than any other area of what is now America and Canada. Of course what we have is incomplete. Still you should be able to find reference to the family in land, probate, and town records. If you have not done New England research before, you need to spend a little time learning how to do it. TOo often people attempt to proceed like they did in Pennsylvania or Virginia, when actually New England records are quite different (ie town records, not county are usually far more important and a 'town' was and is a heck of a different entity than it is or was in PA or VA, etc, etc. It is more akin to the British 'parish', but then if you don't do English or Scottish reserach this comment is not too helpful <grin>). THough we usually start with compiled genealogies, of which we have MANY in New England, the industry of debunking the old ones is huge. People are ALWAYS debunking these. You will find the New England Historic Genealogical Society and its publica- tions VERY useful. Their website is wonderful (www.newenglandancestry.com ). There were a fair number of Scottish surnames in New England in 1700 as in the 1650s Cromwell shipped off soldiers from a battle he'd won over the Scots. After these men served their time as slaves in factories, many married the boss's daughter. By 1700 they were main stream New Englanders. It was not until 1718 that the first five ships of Ulster immigrants arrived, invited by Cotton Mather. I would do some serious examination into the economics of this family in New England. The emigration of an entire family at once definitely means they had some money. That increases the likelihood that you can find them. It's critical to discover their source. Merchants? THis is highly likely, esp. as you say they had friends in L'derry. Merchants got friends everywhere. I'm rattling on here. There are a couple LIndseys named in "Scotch Irish Pioneers in Ulster and American" by Bolton but no Thomas. It is the 101 level book on New England Scotch Irish. So maybe the story is true. Before I'd waste a second more I'd prove or disprove the compiled family history starting with the New England parts of it. As NEHGS has put SO many records on line it's not too difficult, even if they moved, you can probably find them. As families delivered children in varous towns, you can get a better idea of when they did come and the town records to search for records. Also search for a probate. This can very very difficult. If the family owned land in more than one country (England, Scotland, Ireland, the colonies....), then it was probated at Canterbury. These are published. If he owned land in more than one Scottish county, then Edinburgh. These both should be checked, not only for HIS will but for mention made when a parent died -- so check 50 years or more into the future. If the family didn't have a larger estate, then you must search every Scottish jurisdiction. The ones you would search first (populous jurisdictions filled with Prods) have the indexes on fiche and are filmed and in LDS.Some are in www.ancstry.com . In 1700 you will not find hardly any newspapers but the Belfast Newsletter is indexed and free on the Internet (our webpages and google have the URL). Best of luck! Linda Merle ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net