Hi Julia! Re He had other land too, the description of which seems odd. "Crown allotment 3 of Section 1 of the parish of Clunes, containing 32 perches or thereabouts." Perches?? What would that be - feet, or yards ?? Hopefully it wasn't the number of bird houses.<vbg> You could do Google search under “area perch measurement length ” etc. I think you will find the “perch” ( or rod or pole) is actually an old Imperial length measurement equal to 5.5 yards or 16.5 feet. So land measures would likely to be a contraction of square perch being equal to an area of 1 perch x 1 perch or 30.25 sq yards. (Any civil engineers or surveyors out there?) Have a look at this site too…. HYPERLINK "http://www.pobonline.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/Article/1,9169,88115,00.htm l"http://www.pobonline.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/Article/1,9169,88115,00.ht ml Regards… Richard -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.338 / Virus Database: 267.10.5/67 - Release Date: 9/08/2005