I have some great information here to be able to investigate the Gilmour and Cunningham lines further especially now I now the Cunningham/Leece connection onto Whitehaven which is where I have Robert Spruston living and burial along with their children, and then on to Canada.

I'm a little concerned that I will find it very difficult though to go back any further down the Spruston male line. It is an unusual name and aren't that many anywhere. I do have hearsay from family that there is an ancestor who was a mayor of Stratford on Avon but I would like to make the link by proving everything going back but that is going to be very difficult.

I could make an educated guess to a Robert Sprustron/Sprowston.... in England or Ireland but the problem I have is that I don't have an age from any of the baptism or marriage records and no census records to be able to estimate his birth date so it will be difficult (impossible?) to say that a Robert Spruston was the father of Robert Spruston who married Jane Leece.

I guess the illegitimate angle makes it even harder as there will not be a marriage record and also possibly explains why the surname gets spelt so many different ways in each record because he wasn't around and may well have been only around for a short time!

Mike