Our story begins in Arran, a small kidney shaped island off the coast of Scotland, west of Ayrshire.  This picturesque mountainous island covers an area of approximately 160 square miles.

James Nicol, born in 1774, married Ann Love in 1799 and they farmed on 14 acres at Kilbride Farm, Bennan where Alexander was born in January 1813 and lived there with his brothers John, Donald, James and Thomas and sisters Mary, Catherine and Janet.  James died at Kilbride Farm in 1862 and his wife Ann in 1859.

Alexander and older brother John moved to Ayrshire and worked in the Skeldon Woollen Mills.  The remainder of the children appeared to remain on Arran.

Alexander marrried Christina Wyllie in Dalrymple, near Ayr on 12th June, 1845. Two sons, Daniel and James and a daughter Christina were born to the couple.  In 1854 Alexander and his family sailed for Australia on board the "Genghis Khan", arriving in Brisbane in August 1854.  They settled at Kangaroo Point where they ran a small dairy farm.  Two more sons were born in Brisbane - Archibald in 1860 and Alexander in 1864.

Alexander (senior) died in 1884 and Christina moved to Veresdale near Beaudesert to live near her married daughter Christina.  She died there in 1905.

Eldest son Daniel married Anna Bailey in Brisbane in 1873. Anna died childless in 1883.  Daniel remarried in 1884 to Clara Anne Forman.  They had 4 children - Anna, Daniel, Alexander and Isabel. Daniel died at Corinda, Brisbane in 1927.

James married Fanny O'Hara in Maryborough in 1873 and they had 10 children two of whom died in infancy and son James died aged 19 years, during a rugby match at Bundaberg.

Daughter Christina married Verdon Hinchcliffe in 1872 and lived at Veresdale with her family until she died in 1926.

Archibald married Violet Roberts in Allora in 1888 and moved to Carina with his wife and 4 children in the late 1890's.  Like his elder brother Dani-el, Archibald worked as a carpenter.  He later purchased land at Carina where he established a dairy farm.  He died in 1939.

Youngest son, Alexander married Helen Tait Murray in Veresdale in 1887 and had 5 children. Helen died in 1902. Alexander later married Agnes Jane Petersen and they had 3 children.   Alexander operated a hansom cab outside South Brisbane Railway Station for many years and later with the introduction of motorised transport, he had a fruit run in the same area.   He died in 1930 and was buried in the Dutton Park cemetery.