Hey guys,

Just thought I would let you know that I hit the jackpot at the library this afternoon - it was indeed the book by Bill Irvine and it's about 250 pages of material on the Irvines on VI from 1851 to present day. Turns out John Irvine Sr. was a miller and they lived/worked at Viewfield and Gonzales farms briefly before heading up to Craigflower. They got there even before McKenzie. They stayed there for about ten years and then moved over to Rose Bank in I think 1862 after John worked in his spare time to get it built (not sure when he had spare time - Sunday afternoons I guess since he worked 6 days a week for the PSAC). Lots and lots of other info about that sketchy early period too - turns out they definitely did have a kid with them when they came over. The ship they came on (there's a passenger list in the book) only had one other name I recognized, and that's John Work. Anyway, the special collections closes at 4:30 so I'll have to go back Wednesday to take more notes and maybe do some copying. There are some great family pictures though, probably including the one Dan was mentioning.

SM