>>>>>>X-Message: #3 Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 19:25:51 -0700 From: angel@adcomsys.net Any ideas or suggestions please! I am researching the NEIFING, NEUFING, NEUFEIND, families in Reinsfeld, Osburg, Schillingen,Trier and Hannover areas, so far, back into late 1700's. While looking through the FHC online site I was surprised to find a NEIFING family living in Dumfriesshire, Scotland in the early 1600's. Isobel NEIFING was married to Laurence WARKMAN 12.10.1607. They are also found in the Old Parrish Register. Why would someone/family immigrate to Scotland from Germany in the early 1600's? I've looked through several history sites, but still have no clue as to why the move. Any ideas? Thanks so much, Karen Adams, Seattle>>>>> Hi Karen ~ I have a CLAWSON family who arrived in the 1600's from Ireland. Historians say this family was originally McClay from Ireland (or Scotland). Once upon a time, there were two McClay or brothers in Ireland who were forced out of their country for religious reasons - I believe this was late 1500's or early 1600's. There, they changed their name to CLAUSON or CLAWSON to either avoid persecution or to fit into the German society. When the unrest subsided, one brother went back as McCLAY while the other kept the name CLAWSON. Eventually some members immigrated to America, as CLAWSON and others simply CLAY. In 1692, Elizabeth Periment CLAWSON of Stamford CT was tried as a witch and convicted (my 8x grandmother) Imagine ~~~ ALL that trouble escaping persectution, only to come to the "Land of the Free" and get bound and gagged and thrown into a pond! (Elizabeth was eventually set free using the first "character witnesses" in law history) I wonder if the genealogy of a famous person such as "Henry CLAY" would have some history about his name that would give us more clues? Valerie