The McIlwrick Family history studies date back to 1900 or earlier, when my grandfather found himself without knowledge of his roots as his father had died when he was only 14. He was living in Edinburgh but discovered that his family appeared to originate from the south west of Scotland near Ballantrae. He researched the records at Register House, Edinburgh and visited Girvan in the early years of the 20th century. This work was carried forward by Eric McIlwrick my brother, and finally by myself Gilbert Maurice McIlwrick. I decided that as it was a rare name it should form a One- Name Study taking in all those of the names rather than attempting to follow only our own line further back. Twelve separate trees now exist plus a considerable number of stray records not so far identified as belonging with certainty to any of the fully researched trees.