Dianne, There are some errors in your reply to Alex that need to be corrected: 1. Stonehaven was in Kincardineshire until that county was absorbed into Aberdeenshire quite some number of years ago (late 1980s?). Kincardineshire no longer exists as an administrative entity. 2. Dunnottar Castle is about 1.5 miles south of Stonehaven. Unless Stonehaven has annexed considerable farm lands since I was last there in 1996, there is no way that one would consider Dunnottar Castle to now be part of Stonehaven. I'll agree that Dunnottar Castle is intimately connected with Stonehaven. 3. Dunnottar parish still exists and its boundaries haven't changed. Dunnottar parish always was part of Stonehaven (its northern boundary is the Carron water which runs between Old Stonehaven -- the harbour area and High Street (previously Market Street) -- and the new town of Stonehaven -- all lands north of the Carron water). Dunnottar parish has always included Dunnottar Church, which lies in the Dunnottar woods on the south side of the Carron burn and west of Stonehaven, as well as extends south to include Dunnottar Castle. Dunnottar Church is fairly new (by Scottish standards) having been originally built in the 13th century. It contains in its Kirkyard the Covenanters' Stone honoring those prisoners in Dunnottar Castle who died 1685 "for their adherence to the word of God and Scotland's Covenanted work of Reformation". There are other stones from the mid to late seventeenth century. At the site of Dunnottar Castle itself, there was a 'new' parish church from the 12th century a successor to an early chapel apparently dedicated to St. Ninian. The ruins of the chapel still in Dunnottar Castle retains some masonry and two small pointed windows on the south side of the building consecrated in 1276. However, I don't believe there are any memorial stones connected to this chapel (don't forget, Dunnottar Castle is build on rock and it would have been very difficult to bury individuals there). 4. Rabbie Burns was not born in Kincardineshire but Ayrshire (Jan 25, 1795 in a small house about two miles from the town of Ayr). However, his forebearers did hail from Kincardineshire -- in particular his father William Burness was the son of a farmer in in Kincardineshire. However, now of this sheds any light on why an 1851 Census entry would show the individual's birthplace as Perthshire, Dunnottar. Is it possible that the mother was in the process of moving from Dunnottar parish to Perthshire (or vice versa) and the birth/christening is recorded in two separate parishes? Ken Coull (born Stonehaven, Kincardineshire) -----Original Message----- Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 09:14:35 -0500 From: "Dianne Hendrix" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Hi Alex, I suspect the census record was listing both Perthshire and Dunnottar as a birth place because the person giving the information to the census taker didn't know which was the actual birthplace. I lived in Stonehaven (which is in Kincardinshire not Aberdeenshire). I have been to Dunnottar Castle, which is actually now part of Stonehaven, but was once a part of the Dunnottar "parish" , and in fact the church is still there etc., in Kincardinshire, but doubt it was ever PERTHSHIRE. There are 60 - 80 miles in between the two areas. My mother is Scottish born and raised, and has many books on the areas of both Kincardineshire and Perthshire. Also in response to your question about Rabbie Burns... yes he was born in Kincardinshire and his family is from that area. They were farmers just outside Stonehaven. I am a distant cousin. I have a document with the genealogy lines showing the relationship. There is also a man who has a web site with much more information on the Burns family, but can't remember the site address right now. I will look it out for you if you are interested. If I can be of any more help, please let me know. Dianne