The 1861 Census recorded, for the first time, the number of windowed rooms (i.e. rooms with one or more windows) in each dwelling. Why this information was recorded is unclear because the Window Tax ended in Scotland more than 60 years before in 1798 (this from ScotandsPeople). However the data do give us an idea of the typical Tiree dwelling in 1861, which had 2 or 3 windowed rooms (79% of all dwellings) and accommodated 5-6 people. Dwellings with none, no recorded windows, or just one windowed room accounted for a further 16% of dwellings, and 5% had 4 or more windowed rooms. The illustrations of a Tiree thatched dwelling in "The Land Below the Waves: Tiree Past and Present", by Donneil Kennedy, and the excellent pamphlet of the Sandaig Museum by the Hebridean Trust, show a house with 3 windowed rooms typical of the 1850s and 1860s. ___________________________________________ Keith Dash Sydney, Australia Isle of Tiree Genealogy: www.tireegenealogy.com Isle of Coll Genealogy: www.collgenealogy.com