Hi Rosemary, Following your off-list info that Peter & Mary had a daughter Sarah, I revisited Scotlandspeople and found that the 09 Dec1851 birth/baptism record was for Sarah MOORE, parents Peter & Mary. I also looked at the 1861 census transcript on FreeCEN and see that it has Sarah listed as a niece of Thomas instead of his granddaughter. FreeCEN transcriptions are mostly accurate, so I suspect this mistake appeared on the original enumeration. Note that it shows Mary as a widow, so either Peter had died, or she was covering up for his disappearance. I think it highly likely that he died before 1855. Note also that Mary used her maiden name in both the 1851 and 1861 census. That wasn't unusual, but was can be very handy for genealogists. I have reformatted the FreeCEN data, as the Rootsweb formatting otherwise can make a mess of normal tabulated data. *1861 Census* Piece: SCT1861/899 Place: Stranraer -Wigtownshire Enumeration District: 6 Civil Parish: Stranraer Ecclesiastical Parish, Village or Island: Stranraer Burgh Folio: 0 Page: 13 Schedule: 73 Address: 4 Hillhead Surname / First name(s) / Rel / Status / Sex / Age / Occupation / Where Born / Remarks MCGEOCH / Thomas / Head / W / F / 54 / General Dealer / Ireland - - / 3 rooms MCGEOCH / Mary / Dau / W / F / 29 / Housekeeper / Ireland - - / MCGEOCH / Patrick / Son / M / M / 26 / Fisherman / Wigtownshire - Stranraer / MCGEOCH / Peter / Son / U / M / 17 / Dealer / Wigtownshire - Stranraer / MCGEOCH / Bernard / Son / U / M / 13 / Scholar / Wigtownshire - Stranraer / MOORE / Sarah / Niece / - / F / 9 / Scholar / Wigtownshire - Stranraer / Its a pity that there are no burial records for St Josephs on Scotlandspeople. The Dumfries & Galloway Family History Society have lots of booklets of Monumental Inscriptions. http://www.dgfhs.org.uk/userfiles/file/MIs%20and%20burials%20list%20combined%209%20May%202013.pdf I don't know what the chances are like with finding catholics in them. Other list subsrcibers may be able to comment on that. Regards, Bruce