I cheated with the map - they are UK Ordinance Survey Landranger series 1:50000 scale =approx 1 mile to 1 1/2inch. Mine are 1982 editions purchased from a Sydney Australia specialist mapseller. I image the larger cities in the US will be able to cater for you if you wish to buy some. The most useful for research around Renfre/Ayrshire are maps numbered 63,64,70,71,76,77 form north to south and left to right in pairs.

We have to be very careful about how we describe sites!
I have placed markers on the maps because I have heard them mentioned in relation to Caldwell's the things that I have not verified and documented are the details of this association. I have been careful to use the word "associated" rather than to signify that they were Caldwell owned.

The farms could be owned but are more likely leased and the family might only have been working part of the farm. The families may have moved around farming properties over generations and I have not yet specified the time periods when they were occupied by family members.

I have sought to show a "living pattern" of the Caldwell family in an effort to show "where we came from" as being most likely from the area of highest concentration. These patterns handed down over centuries may also give a clue to the initial allegience bond to feudal superior.

My family has a long history of being resident in mid-Ayrshire and all I have been trying to do is to show that the fixation of looking for Caldwells near the Caldwell property (its not a hamlet) is probably incorrect. In this regard I note that the well-written article by Barry Robertson about the Caldwell Parish Church did not mention one person by the name of Caldwell. This is not to deny that any Caldwell's live in the area or are associated with the church - just merely to say that the Caldwell's were well scattered to other areas centuries ago.

I believe that there are more Caldwell's living in the area from Beith through to Paisley than there are in Ayrshire but even that valley is the other side of the hills from the Caldwell property.

I think that you had better stop looking for Mure associations through the property names with Mure or Muir in them, as David of Manitoba also says, these names are more likely to be associated with common or garden moors - the upland areas of Scotland are full of them. The old Scots spelling was pretty loose when it came to writing "moor". Apparently Mur Mure More Moor Muir Moar Moir were all close enough. This is complicated by the fact that Gaelic "Mor" meant "big" or "great" or "chief". I have my own personal theory that the More/Mure family (of Caldwell) is a special case unrelated to Moor. Thats a different story.

I believe that there are two threads related to Caldwell's - they both stem from an early Stewart connection.

Firstly there is the Mure/Montgomey/Boyd/Caldwell connection mainly centered on the Beith-Lochwinnoch-Paisley axis with a connection through the Montgomery's, Mure's and Boyd's to Kilmarnock. ie: basically originating in the Renfrew area.

The other is a direct Stewart/Wallace/Fullarton connection in the triangular area Ayr/Irvine/Kilmarnock. this area is in the district of Ayrshire known as Kyle Stewart.
Kilmarnock is where they intersect.
The family is found all over Ayrshire/Renfrew and other parts of Scotland and it is hard to be dogmatic about location. I am just saying that these are perhaps the main areas where the family originated.

Annanhill is close by Kilmarnock - virtually on its outskirts on the north side of the Irvine. It should be circled on the far right of the map but it may not have printed for you. It is next door to Ellerslie.

There are no Caldwell whisky that I have ever heard of. Whisky manufacture is known as a highland pursuit. The lowland Scots sensibly drank beer. The world famous Johnnie Walker plant is in Kilmarnock but it is a blender not a distiller he raw stuff is brought in from elsewhere (probably Highland distilleries owned by the firm).

I really don't know what the farms produce these days. Farmer David from Manitoba's family farmed the area for generations - he might let us know what the farms "do" these days. How do you like "David de Manitoba" David? I suppose I might become "Tom de Coffs Harbour".

I followed John's instructions and a bit of common sense. Bit hard to give instructions when I am a bit of a novice myself. John was helpful everytime I hollered.
Seems that it doesn't like BIG images - they are too big to be useful anyway. You will have to locate the image file by using EXACTLY the correct name. I seem to routinely forget that every new post attaches the same image until you actually cancel it. Doesn't take too long to replicate the image all over the site!

Seems like when I get time I can set up a full site of my own under John's umbrella (cool) >

This might be a good idea as I seem to get the impression that a lot of this good information will gradually filter its way down the thread and drop off the end.

Method: I just scanned the map. then I read it into Corel Draw and fixed it with a few circles and dialogue. Then I exported it. Corel did not want to send it as a .jpg file so I had to send it out in adobe .pdf import it into a image viewer called "Thumbs+" (highly recommended by me) I then used "Thumbs" to convert this to a compressed .jpg file. Went into my new site and uploaded them (with a little difficulty). Finally posted a message on the site and gave it the reference of the file name on "my" site. Course I managed to get the capitalisation wrong (its case sensitive).

I am still feeling my way and I am sure the quality will improve. I have already noticed that I should have re-labeled all the farm names as the map names do not stand out. I also intend making some hand-drawn diagrams and uploading them by the same method.