loraine, there was a family of cowans went to canada from the oban area last century and some went on to australia the canada connection lives atstanley township and there was an alexander who was married to an elisabeth mcdonald , but they are to old i think, to be your grand father, any way they can be contacted at cherry lane farm lot 18 stanley county the current family is called kenneth mcowan so i guess you could contact them just to check out if there is a connection ,if so ,the family is well documented by the australin branch who were over here in the highlands last year, good luck , rob.