In a message dated 10/01/2008 13:08:48 GMT Standard Time, [email protected] writes: One of my main interests in Sunderland is HALL and I have made a lot of headway with this common surname using both census and parish records. My project now is to try and expand on the various branches You must have a lot of heart to tackle a general study of the Halls! It is one of the most numerous surnames in both Northumberland and Co Durham, as well as being very common throughout the north of England. Your first job must be to look at the W Percy Hedley MSS in Northumberland County Record Office. As you probably know, Hedley published two volumes of his "Northumberland Families" before his death in the 1970s. The Record Office have the MSS notes he made preparatory to writing further volumes on similar lines, one of which was to be devoted to "Elsdon Lairds". W P Hedley's own family can be traced back to one of the numerous Elsdon Hedley families, hence his interest in that parish. There were lots and lots of Hall families among those Elsdon small land-owners and WPH has reconstructed their families excellently. They were the descendants of Border Reivers and their own descendants prospered and multiplied enormously, making Elsdon one of the main "Hall homelands" of the north-east - though by no means the only one! Geoff Nicholson