Thanks for your ideas Patricia. This is possibly my most frustrating search yet!! You suggested: >I went searching for that child by her first name only and her birth year I tried this at Freecen with Archibald, Jean and her same - named daughter, but to no avail. Unfortunately Scotlandspeople will not allow such searches. I also tried spelling variations and allowed for some inaccuracy in birthplaces and birth years. > However, you say you have looked for remarriages. I tried this again and found two Jane/Jean Ferguson marrying in the correct timeframe, but these were OPR marriages and I'm damned if I'm going to spend £20...........yet! The IGI has these also, but as expected no reference to any maiden name or parents. I can't remember whether the OPRs record such detail. > Archibald aged 14 in 1851 could have been at sea then, if he was at sea in > 1861. Very possibly. Actually in the 1861 Southampton census, he is on land and enumerated as a boilermaker. He was recorded as a seaman at his marriage in 1863 in Ayrshire. I would have thought though that boilermaking would require a land - based apprenticeship? At least I have some leads on him! > Jean aged 16/17 in 1851 was probably in service and living with another > family. Very possibly also. Freecen came up with nothing, but I'm not sure they have the full Scottish 1851 census transcribed yet. There were many possibilities on SP, but I limited myself to known family locations and counties. She could have gone further afield, but then she was in Greenock for her marriage in 1855 and no occupation was recorded for her. > John Ferguson aged 15? Was he the son of Archibald (dec'd) Archibald, as his brother already had two Johns, both accounted for and verified. > does that mean Archibald (dec'd) was also born in Ireland? I don't know and I've never considered that! I have no record of Archibald's birth, yet I have the records of his three siblings. All I have ever had to definitively link the two brothers was the marriage of their two children (cousins) in Greenock in 1855. > If the son does that mean the family traveled to and from Ireland? Possibly, but I doubt whether the frequency of travel was great. I also doubt, but could be very wrong, that the entire family were in Ireland in 1851. There certainly was considerable communication with Ireland as there have been 3 likely adoptions, two of which were during the famine in the mid - late 1840's. The family have a long and I hope, noble tradition of adoptions from this time until the early 1900's. Interestingly, there were a few Archibald Fergusons in Armagh in the early to mid 1800's. > If Ireland - then a very very good luck as I have a huge brick wall in > Ireland. Tell me about it! I have at least four! I have long wondered how, and no - one has yet given me a reasonable explanation, people make any headway in their research there, unless they had geographically stable and relatively wealthy ancestors. > Hope my suggestions are something to think about. Plenty.....and thank you! Kind regards Angus