In a message dated 05/01/2008 00:40:26 GMT Standard Time, [email protected] writes: > - have you checked all parish records in Sunderland, Byker, Corbridge, > Hetton (in case he was born elsewhere) for all John Robsons born circa > 1840? Just one tiny little addition to that list of parishes to check. It is easy to overlook the fact that the parish of Corbridge included the parochial chapelry of Halton. In the early 19th century Halton was, as it is today, a "dot on the map" village, but people living in, say, Great Whittingham would have been more likely to have just gone across a few fields to Halton than to have made the long journey right down into the bottom of the Tyne valley to reach Corbridge and then to have had the long climb back out of it to reach home again. Geoff Nicholson