Lauren, This is my story: A number of years ago when I didn't know a thing about genealogy, I posted on every board I could find and I received an e-mail from the daughter of James Dinwoodie who with Kenneth Robertson had researched my line of Stewarts in 1988. She was helping her father and was doing research on a Samuel Stewart, whom she believed to be the brother of Robert and John who came to America in 1718 from Ulster, Northern Ireland. The lore was that Samuel remained and did not travel with the others so that he might recover "lost lands". I have never had a clear picture of whether that was in Ireland or Scotland. She told me that if I would send her a gedcom of what I had uncovered from Robert b. 1655 down to myself, she in turn would send me a gedcom of Robert's line back to Robert the Bruce. This was accomplished. It gave bare facts; names and dates and only occasionally places. However much work has been done on these Stewarts by Chuck Speed and Ryk Brown and they have a much better understanding of the relationships than I do. I have been interested only in making a connection above Robert b. 1655 and all I knew was that his father was Walter. My original goal in doing genealogy was to either prove or disprove the many stories that my father had told us as children, and also find out more about his Dad, my grandfather. You know we all have a "Mary, Queen of Scots" story! A review of Chuck Speed and Ryk Brown'sworkhttp://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rykbrown/gartnafuaran.htm would be helpful to anyone interested in the history over the ocean. I believe there are lots of misconceptions about our early Stewart immigrants and to clear those would require a lot of reading and looking at early Andover, MA; Londonderry, NH; Amherst, NH records. I found the definitive work of Charles Knowles Bolton in Scotch Irish Pioneers in Ulster and America to be a good jumping off point. I cannot stress enough the importance of seeking and finding DOCUMENTS that prove whatever line you are working on. The actual 'dig' is the most important part of this activity. It gives a more accurate picture as well as saves a lot of headaches down the road for you and for those who are reviewing your work. I know a few facts: Jannette Forsythe Stewart lived to be almost 100 and is buried in the Chandler Hill cemetery in Colrain, MA. No stone! She went there with the widow of her son John Stewart after he died in Londonderry (now just Derry), NH. We know that John was married twice, first to Elizabeth Clark and Second to Elizabeth Forsythe. I have never found any blood relationship between Elizabeth and Jannette even with the same maiden surname. Frankly I have not worked the Forsythe line very much. A History of Colrain, MA by Lois McClelland Patrie was a good reference for the Stewarts in western MA. I feel relatively sure that Robert b. 1684 did not marry after coming to America and feel strongly the Robert that married Lydia Blair was Robert b. 1707 s/o the first Robert's brother John. I have no documents to prove this excepting the ages of Lydia and Robert. I have worked closely with the historian at Amherst, NH who informs me that the records there are in disarray and she has looked for lots of this Stewart history for me. She tells me that there are no markers in any of the cemeteries in Amherst for Robert or his son John. She has never been able to find a record of Simpson Stewart's marriage to Hannah. Nor has anything turned up that would fit for a surname of Hannah in church records, town records or whatever. Simpson is the s/o John, s/o Robert b. 1684 The migratory pattern for these Stewarts were: Robert came into Boston and went to Andover, MA and later in life he went to Amherst, NH. His son John, who married Keturah Holt was there and died there. Simpson was born in Andover but moved to Amherst and then on to Jaffrey, NH and finally to Berlin, Vermont. His grandson Charles May also had the wanderlust, moving about New England and then finally west to Iowa. The family scatters from there to many points west and south. I find migratory patterns one of the most helpful tools in research. If you find a stray relative in a strange place, then it would all the more important to have documents to prove the lineage. Nora Yahl