Hi Sue,

I like it: That was a brilliant answer. There was actually a genuine point in it, but as you obviously realised, it was a trick question as well.

Dealing with the genuine point. With parents we have
Mother, GRANDmother; Great Grandmother and then Great Great Grandmother, so 4 generations back is Gx2 Grandmother.

However We do not have a Grand AUNT, so I take it that the line is
Aunt, Great Aunt, Great Great Aunt, Great-Great-Great Aunt. so 4 generations back will be Gx3 Aunt.

In other words, I think I am right that an aunt will have one more Great in her title that the girl you are descended from. Your Gx3 Aunt is the sister to your Gx2 Grandmother. I think I am correct here, but if I am wrong then do please correct me !

That was the genuine point.

The trap, and it is only fair to let that cat out of the bag, is that you would have needed to speal to the lady in RUSSIAN, although that would not be modern Russian, but its predecessor of 1000 years ago, for she was Russian. Elena, my wife, is Ukrainian, but of Russian ancestry, but when we married, we did not know that I had a Russian ancestor.

ON a more serious note, the complicated life of Eliza Cowle and the witesses seem to have thrown up a bonus. Thw witness to the Eliza Cowle/Wm Xtian marriage included a J S Quarrie. Looking at the Quarries, a J Quarrie was a tenant of Ballavair, which was where Eliza'a first husband, Thos Cowle came from.

There is a two part article on the Quarries, and in 1813 Ballavair was run by John Scott and John Brown. According to the article John Brown had a brother James Brown of the Garey. My mother had an idea that our Scottish James had a brother, probably a few years older than he was, and perhaps called John, and that they had something to do with the Duke of Athol and farming. Scott also managed Ballavoddan, which was one of the Duke's farms !!

I havent proven it yet, but this is an extraordinary coincidence, so it may be that our Scottish James was at the Garey in 1913.

That poses the question which Garey. There is no Garey in Andreas so far as I can see. There is the well known Garey in Lezayre, next to Loughan y Yeigh, but there is also Gary More in Bride, so I need to find out what I can on James Brown of a "Garey" in Lezayre or Bride in 1813, and see if he fits with our guy !!!

Congratulations on avoiding the trap so neatly !

Robert