David, not all of the Passengers on a HIES Ship were sponsored, some were just plain emigrating on their own. On the "Allison" 1852 I placed the HIES number beside the Passenger. Unfortunately not all ships have the HIES number beside them. I know the "Allison" has. The other problem was that the passenger lists broke the families out into; 1 Parents with children under 14 2. Single men 3. Single women But there were families members that were single men and woman over the age of 14. A very difficult task to work out who was part of the family. At 12:00 AM 6/27/00 +1000, you wrote: >In my recent postings on this issue, I wasn't suggesting that everyone >from the Inverness area would have left from Fort William. One of the >problems of trying to keep postings brief. >If one looks at the map of Scotland and the Highlands in particular, >there would appear to be several areas with access to shipping ports. >My emphasis should have been on those people living on the western end >of the Great Glen. I guess if one lived in the city of Inverness one >would head towards the coast at that end of Loch Ness and if one lived >on the western coast there would have been plenty of other options. >Those that referred to the HIES migrants do have the benefit of some >good record keeping which does not apparently apply to individual >Scottish immigrants, although I would be pleased if someone could tell >me how to further identify one of the HIES passengers who was simply >listed as ie. Donald McDonald, 30 of Inverness. This description is so >broad as to be virtually useless. Are there other records that expand on >the HIES individuals. >David >Port Fairy