March 26, 2018, Mary Anne Inkster entertained and informed a good-sized crowd gathered to hear about her trip back to the Orkneys to visit new-found cousins. Travelling with a recently discovered cousin, Linda Dueck, from Brandon, she toured various of the Orkney Islands. One highlight of her trip was a second visit to Marie and Alistair Nicholson and her family, on the Mainland. Marie was the first Orkney cousin Mary Anne contacted when she began her research. She met Marie the first time she travelled to the Orkneys. She was also delighted to meet Jean Siddall who was visiting Orkney from New York, USA. They were able to join, and share stories with, their cousins, Edith and Allan Shearer. Mary Anne, Jean, Edith and Allan are all descendants of Samuel and Jane (Wall) Inkster. Mary Anne was able to visit the archives in Kirkwall and discovered pictures in records there of her family and track some of their movements around the Islands. Mary Anne revisited Leanne and Dennis Fergus on Westray. Her Inkster family and the Fergus family have an interesting relationship to the land originally farmed by the Inksters but gifted to the Fergus family by the Laird. Today, living there, Leanne represents both families. Some of the Inksters remained in Orkney while others emigrated to Canada. Mary Anne was also able to visit some of her family historic sites, like Nisthouse in Sharpinsay, where her grandmother had lived. The house is empty now and she peeked in the windows imagining her grandmother as she must have looked standing in the kitchen all those years ago. She also went to South Ronaldsay, to meet Mary and Hamish Omand. Mary Omand’s great-grandfather was descended from Jane (Wall) Inkster’s brother. Mary Omand took Mary Anne to a couple of historic sites – one being the Italian Church build by Italian prisoners of war. The basic construction was a metal Quonset hut, but the tile work is amazing, and the structure is beautiful. She also went to Churchill’s Barriers built during WWII to stop German ships from entering the harbours. And then there were the Wooly Pigs. When she returned to Kirkwall talking of Wooly Pigs, her cousins told her the South Ronaldsay folk had been pulling her leg. But Mary Omand sent pictures and they are a delight to behold – a big hit with Mary Anne and her audience. On Rousay Island, Mary Anne toured another Stone Age ruin. She also discovered, in conversation with her cousins, that one daughter of Samuel and Jane (Wall) Inkster had emigrated to Regina, Saskatchewan, and was buried there. Her name was Mary Jane (Inkster) Pollock. Family lore has it that Mary Jane is buried under a road in Regina’s cemetery. Mary Anne has looked into this and feels it might be so. Another trip west is planned for this summer. She also found the obituaries for two of Mary Jane’s three children. All in all, a great adventure.