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Someone called Monica advised that I post this here.

Hi, so this photo was found in the collection belonging to my grandad Alexander Mckay Munro (b.1921 in Lanark and d.2008 in Worcestershire, England). Having studied all the photos in his collection all but this one can pretty much be identified as where and when they were taken and who the people are in them.  However, with this one the most likely conclusion is that the man stood on the back row 4th from left is actually my 3rd great-grandad Mackay (John) Munro who was born on the north coast of Sutherland in 1812, moved to and married in Kirkcaldy in 1856 aged 44, fathered 7 children and died in 1875 aged 63 in Kinghorn (although Mornigside is also mentioned on the death certificate and the age on his death certificate is incorrect because his wife was 20 years younger than him and could be the woman stood next to him 3rd from left). I know this is a long shot but here is some information from Wikipedia about the history of Scottish photography: By 1843 the Edinburgh Calotype Club had been formed, probably the world's first photographic club. The club dissolved in the mid-1850s as new processes appeared, such as the albumen print and wet collodion process. The Glasgow Photographic Society was founded in 1855 (20 years before Mackay John Munro died), The Photographic Society of Scotland formed in 1856 (the year Mackay John Munro married) and the Edinburgh Photographic Society in 1861. The tall man stood second from right on the back row may have been a boxer given that he is holding his fist up. The occasion appears to be a wedding given that there is a cake in the middle, but whose wedding is not known. This forum has always been very helpful to me and I was just wondering if someone out there could identify when or where this photo was taken, or anyone in it ? The women's clothes in particular seem to be from a certain era.

Ok, so there is a parish baptism record for a James Mckay, son of John Mckay in Forse in the parish of Thurso, Caithness.

As this is in the Thurso parish registers I am inclined to believe that the location mentioned as "Forse" is in fact "Forss" which is a place in the parish of Thurso and about 3 miles west of the town of Thurso itself.

However, there was another place actually called "Forse" in the county of Caithness but which was in the parish of Latheron and which was roughly over 20 miles south from Thurso.

Surely if it was recorded in the Thurso parish register it would actually be Forss in that parish and if it had been in the Forse in Latheron then it would have been recorded in that parish.

I know the spelling of place names in the parish registers varied a lot but there is a difference with the modern spelling of the two places.

Ok, so I was wondering if anyone familiar with the local place names in Caithness could help out with this.

I have a James Mackay and Janet Sinclair who had seven children baptised in the Thurso parish register between 1768 and 1778, with various spelling variations of the surname Mackay.

The last two children were George Mackay (b.1776) and James Sinclair Mackay (b.1778) who unlike all the previous children have their parents' place of residence given as Thurdistoft which I know is a farm in the parish of Olrig, even though they are recorded in the Thurso parish register.

The Thurso parish register entries for most of the previous children (1770, 1771 and 1773) state that they were then living "in town", presumably the town of Thurso. I think it is likely that with the last two children in 1776 and 1778 that although they were living in Thurdistoft, parish of Olrig that they wanted to get them baptised at the same church/minister as the previous children which is why they are recorded in the Thurso parish register.

I think that I may have found the mother, Janet Sinclair's parish baptism record as well dated 1756, daughter of John Sinclair, again in the Thurso parish register, but with the location given as somewhere called "Cairdiscroft". I have a theory that this is a mispronunciation/spelling of Thurdistoft and that James Mackay and Janet Sinclair had moved back to the place that she had come from when their last two children were born in 1776 and 1778.

Has anyone actually heard of Cairdiscroft ? to say that it is a different place to Thurdistoft ? I have scoured the web and books and can find no reference anywhere of a place in Caithness called Cairdiscroft, but there are no end of references to Thurdistoft.

To back up my theory that Cairdiscroft is a mispronunciation/spelling of Thurdistoft, noting that Janet Sinclair's father of 1756 was John Sinclair, there is also a parish baptism record dated 1730 for a John Sinclair, son of Henry Sinclair in Thurdistoft. Although in this case it is recorded in the parish register of the parish that Thurdistoft is actually in, Olrig.

You may have caught on to the fact that if the Janet Sinclair born in Cairdiscroft in 1756 is the correct one, then she would have only been 12 years old when her first child was born in 1768. However, I actually have evidence to show that her husband James Mackay was only about 14 years old when their first child was born in 1768 - and the law in Scotland at the time was that boys could marry at age 14 and girls could marry aged 12. So it would be within the bounds of the law, and a matching situation with the husband's age.

So, my 2nd great-grandad was Alexander Munro b. 1859 in Kirkcaldy and Abbotshall, Fife and according to spoken family history he died in Dunfurmline, Fife shortly before World War II (c. 1939). However, there is no statutory death record for him, at least not on the ScotlandsPeople website and I cannot find a grave via the Find a Grave website. His parents were a Mackay Munro, but who went mostly by the name of John Munro, and May Paterson. Any ideas on where to find a death record much appreciated.

I believe that I have found my 4th great-grandmother Barbara Mackay's parish baptism record, dated 1773 in the parish of Thurso, Caithness, daughter of James Mckay. According to two 19th century books she was a "relative" of Lord Reay, chief of Mackays, but there is no published genealogy giving details of her parentage let alone her connection to the Lords Reay. He father, James, in Thurso had seven children between 1768 and 1778 and the spelling of the surname varies on each of the parish baptism entries. The eldest was William Mackie baptised 1768 in the parish of Thurso and on his baptism record one of the witnesses was William Mackay of Kinloch, who I think could have been the grandfather who he was named after. As is well known the eldest sons in Scottish families were often named after the paternal grandfather. William Mackay of Kinloch was a great-grandson of Donald Mackay, 1st Lord Reay and died in 1772 in Thurso and so could be the link to the Lords Reay that my 4th great-grandmother Barbara Mackay was allegedly related to. However, the Book of Mackay (1906), which details the branches of the Mackay Lords Reay states that William Mackay of Kinloch died without issue. Could this be incorrect ? The other problem is that on the baptism record of 1768 for William, he and his father James are given the Mackie spelling variation where as the witness William of Kinloch is given the Mackay spelling variation. However, as previously mentioned of the six siblings of William Mackie b. 1768 the spelling of surname varies from Mackay, Macky and Mackie anyway. Could William Mackay of Kinloch had illegitimate children ?