In a message dated 29/06/00 5:38:36 PM Central Daylight Time, DMacdon152@aol.com writes: << You have to remember that many (most) people could not read or write and that the few who could would put down what their ear heard. And, the translation from Gaelic to English was not easy. Best of luck in your search, Don Macdonald >> I am forced to question the remark above every time I see it, and it is a very common perception so this is not directed at Don but to the statement in general. The church had been very active in the north of Scotland for several hundred years and most people, from the little bit of research I have made, were able to read the bible, and write the Gaelic. Remember Scotland celebrated 500 years of manditory education a few years ago. It is important to remember that before the clearances and the alliance with England the Highlander had amongst the highest standards of living in Europe. I think a lot of the problem with the spelling is that: A: last names were not very important and seldom used. (By this I mean in the locality where the people lived where you may have an entire village in which almost everyone has the same last name.) B: The translation of the name to the English when someone moved to the new World, which was a foreign language to a person from the Gaelic areas. C: Even the pronunciation of a name in the Scottish English would differ from town to town, thus when it was writeen it would be translated into the closest form of English using either the Gaelic alphabet, or the English alphabet as pronounced by the accent of the official. When it comes to last names they are or rather were next to useless and even first names in a decent size village were not of much good as an identifier. Just imagine how many Jock MacDonalds there could be in any single village. Now consider that the next village would be within say 5 miles and how many Jock MacDonald's were there. Considering the habit of naming children after a grandfather, etc., within 3 generations you may have 4 Jock MacDonald's under the same roof. You may also have 3 homes exactly the same if they were all spawned from a single great great grandfather. The solution was to use an identifier like a nic name. dave M.