>This would make an >excellent avenue to investigate in my ONS. >Has anyone else looked at the emigration statistics for their studies? Chris Not yet - still trying to get detail on the overall numbers, distribution and families within England and Wales - not to mention Scotland and Ireland. Random events tend to cluster. Which is why sample size is important - large enough to smooth out the peaks and troughs but not so big as to be unmanageable. For example my own family line has few if any emigrants but a cousin line originating from the same Suffolk village has a large proportion of descendents in Canada and New Zealand. Similarly one large 19C London family (originating from Oxfordshire) appears to be the source of most of the present Australlia lines (subject to further research). Pete Winney - 4586 ps - Glad you liked the Mecanno picture - copyright probably now held by Mecanno Francais!