ALLISON CLINE from Canada is trying to track down her family"s Greenock connection.

She has 'run into a brick wall' and hopes readers may be able to assist.

Allison tells me: 'My great grandmother Elizabeth Gillespie was born to Joseph Gillespie and Jean McDougall sometime in the 1850s but can find no record of her birth, no record of a christening and no record of her parents" marriage although the census records state that all three of them were born in Greenock.

'Joseph Gillespie was a blacksmith and I have located him in the 1851 census as living in Greenock, single and 40 years of age.

'Elizabeth married William Brown and lived in Greenock where my great grandfather worked as a railway fireman and then returned to being a sailor. He died at sea in 1886.

'They had two sons, Robert and George Brown, who were evetuanlly sent to Canada through Quarriers.' Allison will be coming to Scotland for the first time in September and would be delighted to meeting a member of her family or even see a gravestone relating to her great-great grandparents.

She can be contacted as 2356 Grenoble, Unit 8, Pepertree Village, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada P3A 4M5.

Alternatively, her e-mail address is:allison.cline@city.greatersudbury.on.ca Meanwhile, Frances Sheker, nee Willey, a Greenockian now living in the States, is trying to contact old friends.

She is hoping to hear from a former Greenock couple who moved to Bedford and then bought a house in Inverkip. The couple are Jean, nee Mountain, and Hugh.

Please give me a call if you can help.