Hi Ida, Jacqueline and others First, Ida - Just to clarify re Catherine McNeil where you say "family travelled to Australia" - I was not suggesting that Catherine and Archibald travelled to Australia, in fact I think it quite likely they stayed on Mull. What I do know is that their son John Beaton married in Auckland NZ in 1843 and their second son Archibald seems to have died in Queensland in 1886 (although I know nothing else about him). How or when they both emigrated is unknown. Second regarding Marion. I also found the Allan McPhaiden marriage that Jacquline refers to and as Marion would have been 20, I thought it looked about right. However two doubts arise. On the original OPR the bride's location is C**ig. Only yesterday I asked Ian if he could help in deciphering. It could be something like Covig or Cruig or Craig - anyway nothing like any location I could see near Caillioch. The other doubt arises when you look at her death which I found on ScotlandsPeople under the name McFayden on 16 Feb 1872 at Portmore, Tobermory. She is described as pauper, widow of late Allan McFayden, seaman. Here her parents are given as Lachlan Mac Neill, farmer, deceased and Mary McNeill nee McGillvray, deceased. The informant was son John McFayden, shoemaker. Portmore, present. Now, of course this could be a typical error you find on death certificates where informants take a guess at what they don't know, but it seems to be pointing to a totally different family. Does anyone know of a Lachlan McNeill/Mary McGillvray family? This would leave 'our' Marion as still a mystery. Third regarding Janet. Jill Dakin had already pointed me to the likely marriage to Duncan McDougall because of the reference to brother-in-law as informant in the death of Mary McGilvray. Sure enough I found Duncan's death in ScotlandsPeople on 8 July 1876 at Penmore where he is described as widower of Janet McNeil. Unfortunately I can find no death of Janet McDougall between 1855 and 1876 so she must have died pre-1855 Fourth regarding Mary and Hugh McGilvra(y). Jean's question whether this Hugh could be the person born 1818 seems unlikely as the Mary / Hugh marriage would most likely have been around 1810. Ida, is there no mention of this family in the 1851 census? So there we have it. No knowledge at all of Neil and possibly nothing of Marion if the McPhaiden marriage is not her. No knowledge of the death of Catherine (Beaton) and Janet (McDougall). Would love to hear your thoughts. John Beaton Brisbane

Hi All, Not in a position to comment on detail of recent emails as engaged on another project (regret not Mull related, hopefully back on that on Sunday) as present but to quickly answer the question re C**ig. My suggestion is that it is Criog which is within a reasonable courting distance of Cail(l)ioch. Hope this helps. Ian

Correction should be Croig. Ian