LindaInverness@aol.com wrote: > Its good to see people back again!! The list has been very quiet and I've > missed it!!! The wonderful thing about genealogy is all the skeletons that > pop out of the closet! These bigamy stories are really interesting! There are so many wobbly connections in all pedigrees. We do ourselves dis-service by paying too much attention to conventional Registers and Census records. In hunting my family origins, major revelations have been from "collateral" sources including: Nat Archives SCT Nat Library SCT Edinburgh Public Liby Scottish Genealogical Soc Indexed memorial inscriptions Asylum medical records Testaments/ wills Courts records Early newspapers Public Libraries near ancestral addresses- asked for Local Studies Librarian to assist Church Session records/ Vestry minutes. Valuation Rolls Estate [survey] plans Electoral rolls FH societies now in same ancestral locality RECORD OFFICES there are more than 400 in SCT! Pretending Linda lived in Inverness city, I know these local record offices include Beauly, Strathconon, Dingwall, Dornoch, Durness, Elgin, Farraline Park, Lairg, Nairn, Invergordon, Muir of ord. My families were in those places by Inverness 'bus routes. I have postal addresses for each of those. That is a wee sample of my favorites > Their > mother (my grandmother) married when she was pregnant (another shock!!!) I was curious about my own birth 8 months after my parents married in Church. After Mum had died and most of my white hair disappeared I looked at the Civil Marriages Index and found TWO entries for marr. of ESTHER THORNHILL to MURDO M. CAMERON. Guess what! They had a timely marriage <earlier> at a Registrar Office many weeks before Church wedding! I was obviously conceived legit. Alistair

Hi all, I too have enjoyed reading the latest posting, something to do on these wet windy winter nights in NZ. I just want to add that Skeletons in closets can be a wonderful surprise. After researching my Gibson family for over 15 years, I finally traced and made contact with my grandfather's family... or what was left of them. He came to New Zealand in 1923 and never spoke of his family in Wigtownshire. Upon making contact with my dads 1st cousin, imagine our surprise when he told us that my Dad had an older half sister still alive and well in Dumfries & Galloway. She was born to my dad's dad and was raised by his parents. My Dad is 78, his sister is coming up 86. I have been fortunate enough to travel to Scotland to meet her and of course my first cousins. So keep on digging, it can yield wonderful results. Dianne New Zealand