In a message dated 28/05/2007 06:44:43 GMT Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: This is a retry after 12 months searching, & I'm hoping Geoff will be able to help this Geordie in Oz. My 3Ggrandfather Edward Ross married Elizabeth Oliver on 13/2/1816. He was born in Benton in 1788. All info that I've paid for so far does not reveal his parent(s). I know it's only a slight possibility that any other names will be given but I would be so grateful if you could look up the HM Woods records just to eliminate that possibility. He was a shipwright & my search so far has given me Newcastle apprentices only up to 1774. There appears to be apprentice records for Bishopwearmouth & South Shields, how do I go about accessing these records? At what age did apprentices get taken on around 1800? In assume that by "born in Benton" you mean "born somewhere within the parish of Longbenton, Northumberland". The H M Wood transcript of Longbenton parish register includes no baptism for an Edward Ross, 1785 to 1790. The IGI (1992 microfiche edition) for Northumberland also does not include any edward Ross baptism from Longbenton around that period. The nearest is an Ndward Rfoss baptised at Earsdon on 13 May 1785. He was the son of Matthew Ross and Dorothy, whose marriage is not included on that editon of the Northumberland IGI. Ross is included with Rose, etc, so that surname/spelling can also be eliminated. My own databases of Northumnberland baptisms and marriages also do not help. For the late 18th century/early 19th century apprenticeships were given only by Trades Guilds, of which there were none in Sunderland, and were designed to fit the apprentice for Guild Membership - ie to possibly run his own business rather than to become an employee in someone else's business. The later sort of apprenticeshpis - ones "as we know them" came in with larger, labour-intensive industries, where the jobs became more skilled, and it became even more important for an employer to know that a potential recruit knew what he was doing. At the time in question an apprenticeship (to a Trades Guild) usually began at the age of 14 and lasted for seven years, until the apprentice was 21 and gained his majority. Any apprentice records for either Bishopwearmouth or South Shields, or anywhere else in the modern Tyne and Wear, are now held by Tyne and Wear Archives Service, Blandford House, West Blandford Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, where there is a card-index compiled some years ago by NDFHS member Fred Furness. They include those from all the old Newcastle Trades Guilds and also from some of the more recent large employers in the shipbuilding, engineering and other industries. There is a list published (on microfiche) by Durham County Record Office, listing all those that they have, and they might include a few for districts such as the ones you mention, which were part of Co Durham until 1974 but which then came under Tyne and Wear. Most of them, however, are to the Durham Trades Guilds. Geoff Nicholson