Pstainthorp, I'll have a look at that! I must say I wouldn't want to untangle the genealogy Dorothy Dunnett had to in the research for her book: half of the families are related in more than one line.
Most of my family surnames are pretty run-of-the-mill, but I've recently been chasing up Ixers who are related at a few removes, and nobody seems to know how surname originates, though there's speculation that it might come from the corruption of Old English for "Ice-hard" and/or have links with those who came over with William the Conqueror (back to King Harold and co.) At least the surname's sufficiently unusual enough to be relatively easy to trace - except where it's been completely mistranscribed!
Can you imagine the hilarity if we had to represent surnames with a picture: "Cutting" might provide some interesting options - cue images of grass/railway/wood cuttings. Probably on a par with your pile of stones, Claire.
