RootsChat.Com

Hi I'm three years late joining this conversation but I do know something about this, and would like to know a lot more! Topic split off and moved to Morayshire.
I have Crui(c)kshank ancestors that are definitely from farms named (Easter) Gorton and Wester Gorton just 2 miles west of Grantown-on-Spey.  Note these don't come up on google maps but are perfectly visible on streetmap.co.uk

When I visited the town's local cemetery I found a grave of Catherine Cruickshank.  The inscription reads "Here beneath this stone lie the remains of Catherine, spouse to Donald Cruikshank late of Gorton she departed of this life in the 72nd year of her age upon the 13th of June 1797"
Note her surname was Grant (known from her son's will) and not Brand.

Donald and Catherine had four sons who were all plantation/slave owners in St Vincent, Jamaica (as breaky found below).

So far I cannot otherwise link Donald to my family, but what I do also know is that my 5xgreat-grandfather John Cruickshank lived at Gorton in 1841 and that he had earlier worked, around 1792, for a man named Alexander Houston in Grantown whose daughter Clementina married Patrick Cruikshank of St Vincent Jamaica.  This Patrick is Donald's grandson.

One of Donald's sons was called John, born around the same time as my John but Donald's John allegedly died in 1810, whereas mine was alive in 1841!

Anyway, all this to say that the Knockando theory is incorrect I'm afraid, although it's not a million miles away.  Hope that's ok - I find it really important to know where exactly my ancestors lived. 

Of course I'm also hoping somebody might have better knowledge than me about my own Cruickshanks. 

I have a digital copy of a very old pedigree of Donald's family - you would think that would help a lot but I'm still trying to decipher it
This might be of interest to some of you?

Hi Soapy, on family search I see 4 children to these parents, all born from 1855 onwards.  Civil registration started in 1855 and Thomas was born before this so he would have been on some parish record that may be lost....?  I also see indications that Isabella was Irish - and if Thomas was the first child it's possible she went home to Ireland to have the baby?
Regarding the confusion on the names, I had a similar thing myself - one theory could be that Daniel kind of forgot what his official name should have been.  He would have probably chosen to live his normal daily life under either Gray or Russell.  When it came to official events or documents, he got confused about which way round his 2 names should be, or indeed whether it should just be one of the two.
Just an idea......

Hi I have taken photographs (the only method available to me during my visit to the Stornoway Gazette offices) of 3 of these valuable articles - for McIver and 2 branches of Smith, possibly not useful to you dmorley but just in case anyone else is interested.

Note also that there exists an extremely valuable resource for researchers of ancestors in the Outer Hebrides : a large book called "Gleanings".  It contains details of all family groups and crofters, details of who the croft tenancy passed to, BMD dates, anecdotes etc - it's an absolute goldmine, possibly covering all dates since records started.  However it is virtually impossible to find any reference to this online, and one certainly cannot buy it.  There are copies to view in (at least) the Seallam family history centre in Northton and at Stornoway Library.