Thank you for the info.
Yes I never really thought of the literacy aspect. I suppose that farming was the first and foremost priority when it came to teaching out in the country.

My grandmother spoke Gaelic, she was quite competent with it but her english reading and spelling was quite poor if i'm honest.

Well now that I can include all the spelling variations into my search i'm hoping that I might be able to uncover some more of the family.

Thanks again

Catherine