HI John, You didn't find a Grace McNab among your relatives did you? She married first Alexander Greig in 1839 and had one son, Alexander, then was widowed and married Ninian Paton in 1849. We don't know who her parents were and since she was Ninian's second wife there is no way of sorting the family by the naming systems. Her father may well have been Andrew McNab as her son was so named - but Ninian already had sons James, John, William and Ninian by first wife. Grace's eldest daughter was Margaret Primrose Paton. According to the 1851 census Grace was born in Port Glasgow but these records are not always correct and by the 1861 as far as I can work out they had all gone to Australia. Best regards, Mary At 07:20 PM 19/02/2009, John Shaw wrote: >It was common practice about that time for highland and island men >to go to the mainland - often Glasgow - to earn money to send back >home. Famine did occur plus more localised instances of starvation. >A 3 or 4 acre croft might sound idyllic but it could never support a >family. My gg grandfather Malcolm MacNabb left Skye about 1855 to do >just that. However he took ill and died in 1857 alone in the Royal >Infirmary. The death certificate did not even give the name of his >wife or parents. I wonder if his wife and kids knew what became of him. >JOHN SHAW >AUCKLAND NZ. > >For complete instructions on how to UNSUBSCRIBE / SUBSCRIBE / or >CHANGE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS - visit this web >page: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~steve/islay/maillist.htm >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >SCT-ISLAY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without >the quotes in the subject and the body of the message