Dear List, All of my Wigtown family were Irish. There seems to have been a strong historical connection perhaps from Wigtown's promenance as a seaport with trade linking Ireland, Isle of Man and Liverpool. My family seemed to arrive around the time of the famine from Down and Armagh. The names are a givaway too - Kelly, McCluskey, Sheridan and Shevlin among them. The Kellys seemed to stop for a generation before moving on to America but descendants of the McCluskeys and Shevlin were still around as recently as 1980. I wonder if any of the local listees knew a relative called Mary Celia McCluskey (or possibly Ertel) or Margaret Herbert who was a schoolteacher in the Wigtown area? Happy St. Patrick's day to all. Bill Kelly

It may not apply to the Kellys, but there is another historical connection between the area and Ireland - James the 6th of Scotland/1st of Great Britain solved, or at least improved, part of his Borders troubles by banishing substantial numbers of what he called "those dour Scots" from the Dumfries and Kirkudbright areas and implanting them into the Ulster area of Northern Ireland. There was substantial movement back and forth after that. Jack Butler -----Original Message----- From: sct-wigtownshire-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:sct-wigtownshire-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of William Kelly Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2007 2:37 AM To: Sct-Wigtownshire@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [WIG LIST] Irish in your family Dear List, All of my Wigtown family were Irish. There seems to have been a strong historical connection perhaps from Wigtown's promenance as a seaport with trade linking Ireland, Isle of Man and Liverpool. My family seemed to arrive around the time of the famine from Down and Armagh. The names are a givaway too - Kelly, McCluskey, Sheridan and Shevlin among them. The Kellys seemed to stop for a generation before moving on to America but descendants of the McCluskeys and Shevlin were still around as recently as 1980. I wonder if any of the local listees knew a relative called Mary Celia McCluskey (or possibly Ertel) or Margaret Herbert who was a schoolteacher in the Wigtown area? Happy St. Patrick's day to all. Bill Kelly ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SCT-WIGTOWNSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message