I have found in all my searches the seaarcher doesn't always pick up all the variations of names, even Soundex, so if I seriously want to find somebody I browse the IGI and try to join families between parishes, it has helped a lot but still have my brick wall. My name is Mattingley (ly), my actual US family is a variation, Matney. I want to find out where the Mattingley family originates, altho English researchers tell us it is French. So, I think they came over with William the Conquerer as do many people about their ancestors, but I can't prove it. Yes, I know about the village of Mattingley in Hants and I've read it in Domesday, but the Mattinglys actually left that county early and moved into Berks. They are found in the Channel Islands in 1350 with French names speaking French, I can't believe they went there from England and became French. There is a large Flanders family named de Metteneny (Metheney, Mathany from France,Mettingly, Maddingly, Matherly, Matley, etc. ), their chart has been sort of completed from 1200 and I think we are related. You'd be suprised how mamy people can't pronounce "tt" and it comes out "th". Most searchers lead me to "matting", so frustrating. Anyway, you will find a lot of variations if you browse instead of searching, especially in early records where they had 15 ways to spell every name. Norma ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kerrie" <kerriea@aapt.net.au> To: <berkshire@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 9:17 PM Subject: [BRK] IGI Coverage of Berks > > Hi Phil > > Many thanks for your detailed explanation of the Berkshire parishes and the > IGI coverage. I've had a look at the Berkshire FHS website & will go ahead > and get a few searches done of their databases. Hopefully I'll find a few > of my missing families this way. > > I will also look at the Berkshire RO website for their coverage of parishes. > > Thanks again for your great help. > > Cheers > Kerrie > > > > Berkshire is quite well covered by the IGI - it has been suggested that > > around 70% of pre-1837 baptisms and marriages are there. I suspect this is > > an over-estimate; perhaps 70% of parishes are covered in part. There are, > > of course, a great many gaps - is any county complete? > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BERKSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message