I do suspect Liz, that you have checked out the two main publications about Cornish migration to South Africa and have found, like I have, that here is obvious no reference to a William Rowe Hocking in those books. I thought I might give the publication details so that you can, if you have not already done so, put a negative tick amongst your research notes. 1) Cornish Migrants to South Africa. (The Cousin Jack's Contribution to the Developement of Mining and Commerce 1820 - 1920). By G. B. Dickinson. Published a.A. Balkema, Cape Town, 1978. (This book has a massive list of Cornish Migrants to S.A. including some 13 who have the surname of Hocking). 2) Cornish Pioneers in South Africa. By Richard D. Dawe. Published by Cornish Hillside Publications, Truro, 1998. Perhaps, despite being from an academic viewpoint, the definitive study. I know what the dark side of human nature is when you referred to "You know what these men were like - they often changed their names, moved on to other countries, etc." So much so that in the early twentieth century a government Dept. was set up in South Africa to deal with this problem of errant husbands/fathers and, I think, there was a Police station in south Australia which specialised in searching for "runners". Sadly, there was the other side of the coin. In Cornwall children appeared that could not have been the husbands, wives moved into other households, unjustified debts were accumulated in the absence of husbands and so on. The remmittances sent home gained by horrific work in high mortality regions may have been fritted away. The disappeared husband may have died a ghastly and lonely death whilst desperately trying to provide for his family back home. Lack of a formal record of the event does not always mean the guy was a rat. I'm full of admiration for those chaps who accepted a contract in diifficult climes (e.g. Cuba), maybe leaving behind a young wife and little children and, through evidence of the ten yearly census, may have been absent several decades (perhaps with the rare visit home) and then resuming family life in a much improved economic situation for his wife and having provided the means for his children to gain an education out of poverty. Mike, (in a chauvinistic mood), Redruth.