Dear Catherine, My father's family were boat people on both sides for a number of generations and I have Watkinsons, Boltons and Garners. Other surnames are Culshaw, Lamb, Melling. I can go back to my ggg grandparents on some branches. If you let me have details of your tree, I'll see if I can link it to mine. The most hopeful would appear to be Margaret Garner and Richard Bolton. Their daughter, Margaret Bolton, b1852, was the mother of my grandmother, Margaret Watkinson. Have you seen the book Burscough Boatmen and their Families? Yo might find some useful info in there. There is a long listing of marriages between boat people. it certainly seems to be the case that they tended to marry within the community. Margaret Parkinson (nee Watkinson)