Ken, Thanks for helping to clear up some of my errors in response to Alex. I feel terrible having given misinformed information. After my response to Alex I did learn that things had changed quite a bit around Stonehaven. That it indeed was absorbed into Aberdeenshire now. I lived there in the late 70's and early 80's, which explains why I didn't know about this. It happened after I moved from there. I was married in Stonehaven in 1981, and moved back to the USA shortly thereafter. On the second note you made about Dunnottar Castle... yes it is intimately connected with Stonehaven, and again I was wrong about the boundaries. I thought I did say that the Dunnottar parish (church and all) was still in existence, but I guess I didn't realize as a teenager when I was there that it was not part of Stonehaven. I remember going to the harbor at Stonehaven and climbing the cliffs (dangerous stunt I know), up to the pillars that stand on the hill, so I just wasn't very clear about the technical boundaries. You seem to be very up to scruff on your history about the Dunnottar Castle and the area, and thank you so much for clearing this up for both me and Alex. I am CC this email to Alex to apologize for any misleading information I gave him. As for Rabbie Burns, once again I am corrected. This will teach me to speak before I look at my records for accuracy. I guess there is lots of conflicting information that I gave to Alex or anyone else reading my email. I do apologize and will be more careful in the future about writing to the group with my limited knowledge. Thanks again Ken, Dianne -----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