During the period 1600-1799, the economy of Fife was based on exports of fish, coal, salt, agricultural produce, linen, and other textiles. Its seafaring communities were engaged in fishing and whaling, with trading voyages to ports in Scandinavia, the Baltic lands, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain, and the Americas. These shipping links led in due course to emigration. This book is based on research into primary source material, both manuscript and printed, largely found in archives in both Fife and in Edinburgh. While the contents of the 2,000-plus entries of Fife inhabitants varies considerably, the following sample conveys an idea of what researchers may hope to find in the work as a whole: "WEST, JAMES, born 11 June 1791, son of John West in Kirkcaldy, emigrated to America in 1815, settled in Wood County, West Virginia, died in Fox Township, Ohio, in 1851."[OVG.125]