Posted By:	Roddy Oliphant
	Email:
	Subject:	Re: William Oliphant
	Post Date:	November 07, 2008 at 12:54:01
	Message URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/oliphant/messages/1398.html
	Forum:	Oliphant Family Genealogy Forum
	Forum URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/oliphant/

Hi Sharon, As a matter of interest, are you also interested in Duncan Oliphant or a completely different line of Oliphants? The reason I ask, is that we have radical developments in the DNA of Duncan's line or rather, a very close match to Duncan's line has emerged in the last week from a Scottish line of Oliphants. The truth is that so far as the Fife Oliphants are concerned, they have not been researched anything like as extensively as the Perthshire Oliphants. It is not to say that the information is not out there, it may be. There were various families of Oliphants in the Kirkcaldy area in the second half of the 17th century, including:- 1/. David Oliphant (from an earlier Gask line, descended from the 4th Lord Oliphant) who married Anna Oliphant and had four children (three were certainly born in Dysart, a suburb of Kirkcaldy between 1688 and 1694). David had a brother, William, about whom we know nothing but would be the right age for the William about whom you are asking. 2/. There was a William Oliphant who was apprenticed in Kirkcaldy in 1714, which is too late to have been your man. This William was in fact the elder brother of the 10th Lord Oliphant but was dead before 1721. 3/. The last of the known Oliphant groups in Dysart, was William Oliphant of Binzean and his family. He had a number of children, including a William who was baptised in 1659 in Forgandenny. The elder William sold Binzean to his nephew, Laurence Oliphant of Condie and moved to Dysart in 1666. As I said, Fife has not been properly researched yet but what we do think is that there seems to have been an enclave of Oliphants (who came from Strathearn) at Dysart, going back before the arrival of either 1/. or 3/. above. It is just as possible that the William about whom you are enquiring is from the Kellie Oliphants. What does the actual OPR entry for the marriage show (have you got a copy of the page from Scotland's People?)? Yours aye, Roddy.