It probably isn't what you wanted to hear, Sheila, but how about FIVE different families, maybe all connected somewhere down the line? :-) Hard to tell whether you're looking at bigamy, cousins, more than one family or any other scenario here, without more details and thorough analysis of all the documents to hand. I'm unfamiliar with that part of Argyll, but an initial search turns up at least 4 Gilbert M(a)cIntyre baptisms registered in Lismore or Ardchattan between 1777 and 1793, (and none of those was fathered by a Duncan, suggesting there must have been at least one more in that time frame to fit yours). Extended families with similar naming patterns are fairly common and often hard to sort out unless they lived long enough for their deaths to be recorded and the informants knew the parents' names, so I wish you luck and staying power. Checking records horizontally (though not literally!) sometimes helps. For example, while it may be hard to find records for one's direct ancestors, their siblings may be a welcome source of information. Fortunately, others on the list will have more first-hand knowledge of the families in the area. For what it's worth, I'd go with the cousins option rather than the bigamy, simply because it's more likely. Good luck and enjoy the trail. Katie de Haan The Netherlands MCVEAN SINCLAIR MCKELLAR CLARK MITCHELL MCINTYRE Argyll, Renfrew > LKS MCCALLUM MUNRO BEATON BETHUNE ROSS: Sutherland, Ross & Cromarty > LKS MCCALLUM Perthshire 1700s KING PALMER LANGSTONE CARR POKINS HUTT Oxon/Berks UK KING JACKSON WEEDON Middlesex/London City/East End UK THACKWELL KEAT Worcs/Oxon/Berks/ COOKE Kent & Royal Artillery ----- Original Message ----- From: "D & S Tryk" <wombat@ecarthage.com> To: <sct-argyll@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2008 11:53 PM Subject: [ARGYLL] confusing family > Here's my problem. My ancestors were Gilbert MACINTYRE and Flory MACCALLUM > who married in Ardchattan in 1802. I think his parents were Duncan > MacIntyre and Anne MacIntyre (various spellings). > Their children seem to have been: Donald (1804), Archibald (1808/09), > Mary?, Isabella (1816) (my ancestor), Archibald (1821), Cathrine (1826), > Ann ?. > However, I have found NO birth or baptism entries for Mary, who, from > the 1841 census report, would have been born around 1816 (or earlier) or > for Ann, who presumably was born about 1826. > These girls appear with the family on the 1841 census. Mary apparently > married Donald MCKENZIE December 1837, and they had Flory in 1838 and > Donald in 1840. All that makes sense, but for one thing: > A Mary MACINTYRE was born in Lismore to Gilbert MACINTYRE and Ann > CONNEL in 1813 and an Ann MACINTYRE was born to Gilbert MACINTYRE and Ann > CONNEL in 1822. > Do I have two separate families here? Was Gilbert a bigamist? There is > no notation that these girls were illegitimate. Is there any kind of > explanation for this? Help! > Sheila in Missouri > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > SCT-ARGYLL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message