Thanks Marilyn, I think it makes perfect sense. Because Musselburgh was known for its mussels, and because the livlihood of many men changed from farming to fishing in Sutherland during that time, it seems logical. Someone suggested salmon fishing. I guess I will have to learn more about fishing. Is there someway to find out what a person did for a living during the 1850's in Sutherland? I found a list for 1822 that showed what the men did as work. Was that the only census of that kind? -----Original Message----- From: Marilyn [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2002 2:20 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [SCT-EAST-LOTHIAN] Musselburgh Hi Sue: Re: Your Bowie's My gg-grandfather was a shoemaker, and he migrated from Caithness (North-east Scotland) to East Lothian following the changing "tide" of his work. It appears that he was following the masons and miners to make their boots, and of course his family moved with him. No doubt, if someone needed to travel North for the harvest of the sea, he would; I understand that times were very tough, and whatever it took to raise a family, it would be done. I am certainly no expert on this -- any other input?? Cheers, Marilyn ==== SCT-EAST-LOTHIAN Mailing List ==== Join the Lothians Family History Society! Visit their homepage by pointing your web browser to http://www.btinternet.com/~mmgene/lfhs/ ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237

Hi Sue: For occupations in the 1850's - I don't know if there is a list per se, at least I have never seen one. However, I have found that on the Census Returns the occupations are shown. Scotland had Census' taken in 1841, 1851 and 1861 - more but these are probably the ones you would be interested in. Hopefully you know the Parish and/or Country the Bowie's were living at in Sutherland, or if a child was born during the period of interest you should be able to find out where they were living, it would be so much easier. I ordered in the Census returns through the Latter Day Saints Family History Centre. I know that the Caithness Family History Society has members that are willing to do look-ups and I am sure the case would be similar in Sutherland - search for a website - there may be a small fee, I don't know- just so there's no surprises, or you may find a soul-mate willing to help you out!! There is a Caithness Community WebBoard (a local site, and there may be one for Sutherland as well) that has a lot of County history posted and certainly very informative. You may be able to narrow down your search somewhat if you can find such a site - you may wish to try GENUKI for their Sutherland pages, or links from Electric Scotland or one of the other Scottish webboards. Funny how we end up searching all over Scotland, even though our "home base" per se is East Lothian :)) I know what you mean about "learning about fishing". You might even find that mussels were fished in Sutherland too (maybe a hint!!) I have been having to learn about British Military History - not one of my most interesting challenges!! I am very interested in the list you found of occupations in 1822, the year my gg-grandfather was born. Is that on-line? Good hunting, Marilyn