: All I need is a gedcom file, plus any copy that you would
: want to add.
Finding time to start again is a bit of a problem - heart is willin' flesh not up to it at the moment - just thought I would let you know I had 'em. Good project. My own family files need to be coded up too - I keep on finding a bit more.
I have heaps of pedigree charts made up by the late Lesley Gordon - mainly of Caldwell families in the Lochwinnoch area - they need to be electronically recorded as well. Would probably make more sense on a computer file and I am sure that a lot more would link up once we had the power of a computer thrown at them.
If any one needs help I will do my best until they are loaded up. But I need you to trace your family into the Lochwinnoch area in the early 1800's first(or earlier is even better).
Mrs Gordon went through a lot of wills and I now have many transcripts of these also. The clerks who drafted them had their own peculiar script and they are very hard to read - luckily many of them are "translated".
I sort of promised Mrs Gordon that I would write a book on the Caldwell's and I have this as a "holy" trust so I cannot be too free with the information but I am willing to help any genuine fellow researcher on a mutual help and exchange of information basis.

The further I go the more common the family name seems to become. I am starting to have great reservation about the source of the name being from that single family property.
I seem to come up with another possible source for the name each time I write. Yet another is to assume that the end of the name - "well" sometimes written as "wall" or "walls".
If we can accept that this might mean "Welsh" as in "Wallys" (Wallace) then I have noted that "Gauld" from Gaelic "gallda" means "pertaining to the lowlands" and is also an Ayrshire name (variant Galt). Combining the two we get "Gauldwalls" - it has never been spelled that way but if it was pronounced similarly before it was ever written down then it might have been written as Caldwalls from early times. In this scenario it could mean "Lowland-Welsh". Of course in the scenario of Strathclyde it would mean the descendents of the Britons that still inhabited the lowlands. I note that Caldwells seem to have originated in the low valleys running through Dalry-Kilbarchan and Lugton-Neilston as well at the Irvine, Ayr and probably Doon valleys.

This would give credence to the apparent appearance of Caldwell's all over Ayrshire and Renfrewshire from early recorded times. It would also appear to support their relatively large numbers.

Just an idea - kick it around a bit - at least it is original.