Surnames of particular interest include:

Anderson, Copland, Gifford, Hunter, Leask, Linklater, Meek, Smith, Sutherland, White, Williamson.

My family tree is stubbornly rooted in Shetland, and has been for at least two or three hundred years, if not more. Some of the ancestors I've traced lived on the island of Bressay, where I myself grew up, while others came from the Mainland parishes of Lunnasting, Nesting, Sandwick and Dunrossness.

I started researching my father's family back in the 1970s, extracting from Bressay parish registers all the entries I could find containing the surnames Linklater, Gifford, Copland, or White. To help with post-1854 research, I turned to the census records and - some considerable time later! - ended up with an index of all names from the Bressay census records for 1841-1891.

The Linklaters, Giffords, Coplands and Whites discovered in the parish registers were added to this index, as were various scraps of information gained over the years from other sources - personal contacts, magazine articles and suchlike. Between one thing and another, what started out as a personal family history project has by now grown into a pretty extensive collection of data relating to people who lived in Bressay or are descended from Bressay ancestors.

The original loose-leaf index has been abandoned in favour of a computerised version, into which I've also fed the results of later research on the Sutherland families of Lunnasting and Nesting. All of this information is now held as a Cumberland Family Tree for Windows database, which makes it very easy to retrieve information, compile charts etc.

Of the other surnames listed above, the Anderson, Hunter and Smith connections have been recorded by other members of the family, but Leask, Meek and Williamson are areas yet to be tackled. I'd be glad to hear from anyone who has already worked on any of these.

And if you're looking for information on Bressay ancestors of any name, or on a Shetland Sutherland, please get in touch. I'll be happy to provide or exchange information if I can. For help with research into ancestors from other parts of Shetland, email the Shetland Family History Society. (The Society also has its own website, or you can write to them at 6 Hillhead, Lerwick, Shetland ZE1 0ED. )

There is also an email discussion list for people researching Shetland ancestry. You subscribe by sending a message to SCT-SHETLAND-L-REQUEST@rootsweb.com, with subject SUBSCRIBE and message text SUBSCRIBE.