The suggestion that one of your ancestors might have come from a long distance away is not just theoretical, it did happen, particularly with fisher families. They followed the herring shoals all the way from Shetland to Great Yarmouth, year by year, and while landing fish and spending some time in various ports (e.g. waiting for storms to clear), it was not uncommon for fishermen to find a girl in the port and later marry her. One of my own line had a wife surnamed Holland (or Hollandhead) around, who apparently was born in the London area in the 1700s. Other likely occupations are seamen, whose port activities are notorious. However, one has also to allow for itinerant merchants, who travelled the country vending their wares. In the early 1800s I encountered a china salesman from Italy who met and married a girl in Kincardineshire. They started a family, and a generation later some emigrated to the USA, where they adopted the surname Scott to avoid the anti-Italian bias in the Americas at that time. So, as Anne says, allow for anything......;-) Gordon.