At 03:34 PM 12/1/05 -0700, nada632@aol.com wrote: >Connections also to Lorimer, Rainie and Gordon families who may all be from the Banffshire area. > I'm doing a bit of research for a blind friend in her nineties who can't use a computer or microfilm herself. She has some ancestors surnamed RAINIE-BROWN (or just RAINIE BROWN without the hyphen). By the mid-nineteenth century they were living in Edinburgh, but were supposed to have come from "somewhere on the Moray Firth coast". The original Miss Rainie whose surname was added to that of Mr. Brown for their children and furture generations was the only child of well-to-do parents. She would have been born probably between 1795 and 1805, perhaps 1790-1810 at the outside. Does that time-frame fit with your RAINIEs? Were they fairly affluent? While I'm asking, what is the best way to look up hyphenated surnames in the various internet sources? By the complete name (starting with R in this case, also often spelled RENNIE) or by the second half (BROWN in this example). This line of her family is proving very difficult to trace. Thanks for any advice. Margaret Gibbs Canada