Thank you, Mike1 and All, for the info, tips and pointers. I appreciate it!

True, I did not post the entire 'life story' of info that we do know about the previous generations on both my parents' sides; that really wasn't the reason for or behind my post, nor was 'wasting everyone's time with fancifull stories'. My reading of the existing posts did not give me the impression it was a "Post Your Proven Ancestor Facts" thread and had it, I wouldn't have posted.

Certainly it may mean absolutely nothing, the Skidhamyrr/Skida Muir/Skitten Moor angle. OTOH, knowing that many centuries ago people sometimes took their names from where they were born or lived, the name similarity was just too interesting to ignore.

For whatever reason, perhaps stemming from the conflict between both sides - which lasted until nearly everyone was dead - exploring family histories was never important at my parents' level. What little we were told as kids was hardly more than a few lines of summary and was related by my father as though it were humorous.

He seemed to think that his father having had the family "traced back" was silly (and a goofy attempt to find a connection to someone 'important'), and in that vein told me about the 'criminals and sheep herders' - which are terms he used in his summarization of the report given to his father. Do keep in mind that my maternal grandparents despised my father from 'day one' and the rift between the sides existed since my Mother's college days and my parents' dating each other (much to my Mother's parents' horror). Additionally, my paternal grandfather was NOT a 'nice man' throughout his life, and there was a lot of unresolved pain between my father and his. Thus, when the result was 'criminals and sheep herders', my father appeared to feel that such a result 'served grandpa right'.

Both sets of grandparents, and family members before them have long since died. While technically "still living", my father suffers from advanced Parkinson's Disease and other severe illnesses and has been in care facilities since a few months after my Mother died in 11/2004. I sincerely doubt he would be able to tell me anything I have not already heard over the years, since 99% of the time he not oriented to place or time (and sometimes doesn't even know who we are). I handle his medical affairs and medications, my local sister handles his finances and legal matters, but in-person communication is difficult at best.

There is an Anderson/Coté "family bible" (that's so old it's literally falling apart, so we don't handle it often) which contains some manner of hand written family history, but my sister has it on the other side of the valley and it's not like she can e-mail it to me at 2 in the morning when I decide to poke around online in a 'researchy' frame of mind

Apparently my paternal grandmother did some dabbling in tracing back, years ago, and later my mother picked up the task - resulting in some written family tree diagrams. I may have a copy of that buried somewhere in the boxes of papers which still populate my living room, but even 2 & 1/2 years since her death it's very emotionally difficult to sort through that stuff.

It's my understanding that shortly after we lost my Mother's, my sister was contacted by members of the Coté line (our Anderson, maternal side) inquiring about that old bible. Her words were to the effect that 'they are pretty hot to get their hands on it', but we were a very emotional place at the time and didn't respond other than to cordially thank them for their sympathies.

I've never asked anyone to track down info or pursue 'theories' and such for me, nor have I posted any inquires on the various 'geneology' websites. At such time as I assemble the details we DO have, I might do the latter although I am usually very cautious what personal information I make public - especially online.

It is also true, however, that I love to research - and when something sticks with me (of whatever nature), I just have to find the answer, if even eventually

So, while I have yet to launch a full-scale investigation into my family histories using scientific techniques it is an activity that I muck around with from time to time with the info I have when something rekindles the passion (and in view of the Net, sometimes WAY past bedtime )

Thank you again for the leads!
m