Hello Listers, Just to introduce myself. My name is Barbara Terrace and some of my ancestors were flatmen/bargees/watermen. My main surname in this field is HOLDEN and they were from the Great Sankey area of Lancashire. They obviously thought it was worthwhile changing their occupation from cordwainer to flatman/waterman when the Sankey Canal was built. Of course having these sort of people in your family does make life difficult especially when, as mine did, crossed over the River Mersey into Cheshire to marry whilst they were travelling up and down the waterways. Whilst looking for another branch of my family in Runcorn in Cheshire on the 1861 census I came across some watermen tied up at the quays in Runcorn and duly wrote them down and posted them to the Cheshire Mailing List (and others) where Helen kindly linked it to the Geocities for Cheshire. So if you think that you have "lost" ancestors in this period try looking on this site to see if they are in Cheshire. It is surprising how far these Canal People travelled. Happy Searching. Barbara http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/8555/bargees.html