Rose thank you for your reply. I have been conducting research on the occurrence of the BODKIN surname in Northern Ireland on and off for the past 25 years. To fill in my gaps in various family trees I decided to extend my research to Scotland to see if there are any Bodkin's with Ulster references. On the IGI I found the marriage of a James Bodkin to Margaret Kelly on 18 Nov 1781 in Portpatrick. With the short distance across to Donaghadee there may be a NI connection to be further researched. In addition, through the Scotlandspeople web site, I found a few Bodkin's in the Glasgow area from the census returns who were born in Ireland. You are correct in saying that the Bodkin's are now a rare breed but there were quite a number of families especially around the Sperrin Mountains and in particular the towns of Cookstown and Moneymore in the 18th and 19th centuries. I am looking forward to investigating more this line of Scottish research.
Regards Al
