In a message dated 16/09/2004 12:17:31 GMT Daylight Time, janices@twmba.net writes: What has surprised me (and I don't know why!) has been the large number of overseas-born people who are not sailors but traders and craftsmen. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>. As a major sea port (in Victorian times it was accepted as being the fourth port in the kingdom), Sunderland played host to wave after wave of immigrants. Each wave served as a boon to the area among them were: Scandinavians and their sea expertise: Germans, whose pork butchering enterprises could not be matched for service and quality: Italian ice-cream vendors: Jews and their pawnbroking businesses: the Irish as builders and labourers, in the 1851 census 5.7% of the town's population were Irish born. Regards Stan Mapstone www.mapstone.org