Hi all I lurk and enjoy the postings (and owe Lesley many thankyou's for the great background and 'how to' postings that she adds to the general mix) Just to add to the current discussion, two things: 1/ Don't give up and 2/ put your brick wall out on the lists - NAME the man or woman. (plus a bit of detail) My husband's immigrant came free in a cabin as an unreccognisable Mr Turner - no initial- on a ship in 1939. Married before statutory registration. Son as informant on his death cert had provided the wrong set of grandparents christian names. (not intentionally- a genuine mistake in the sadness of the moment) End of story?? George Turner from Devon may as well be Jim Smith from London! A very kind soul saw my mention of him on another list in the UK and put 2 and 2 together He had happened to have read a will by an unmarried woman who mentioned her nephew in Australia - bingo! Not only was my brick wall her nephew but my brick wall had cousins he had followed out that he was in business with in Maitland with all sorts of interesting stories to find (long story but off topic - further wills and agreements in Oz refer to items mentioned in previous wills in Devon) I'm not saying that a will will be found for a destitute Irish tenant farmer or English ag lab, but you never know what snippet of info someone may have that breaks down that wall. But if they don't know you are looking, how can they tell you what they know? Oh, and no 3/: SNIP your postings when replying. We (particularly me) all have acidentally left a great screed of digest on the end of a reply in excitement of that new possible lead, but remember not everyone has broadband or a cheap rate of activity on the internet and its really annoying re-reading pages of yesterday's posts to find the 2 line reply. Good Luck and Happy hunting, Glynis Turner PS Check the Subject line is relevant before sending - I nearly sent with a subject line of : Re: AUS-PT-JACKSON-CONVICTS Digest, Vol 4, Issue 38 Oops :) ----- Original Message ----- Re: [PJ] Untraceable relatives