In a message dated 07/07/2004 13:46:36 GMT Daylight Time, VLJoyce writes: I have been amazed at the number of RAINE's in Teesdale!! My mum's maiden name is RAINE and in Gloucestershire it is very uncommon. I visited Teesdale for the first time this spring, it is a very beautiful area. I was stunned by just how many RAINE's there are in Romaldkirk churchyard. I am finding it very hard to pick the families apart and have already gone off on a wild goose chase with a Jonathan RAINE, shoemaker, in Romaldkirk instead of my Jonathan RAINE, schoolmaster, Cotherstone! Vicky: . . If you were to read through some of the entries in Romaldkirk baptism register you would see that the number of Raines in that parish was enough to confuse even the local people in the 17th and 18th centuries. They had to resort to referring to individual Raines by the name of their father - "Harry's John Raine" or even "Tommy's Jack's Edward Raine". Sometimes if the mother was widowed or perhaps if it was she who "wore the trousers", you can even get "Mary's Will Raine". Such entries have an obvious and great value for genealogists! . . Geoff Nicholson . 57 Manor Park, Concord, WASHINGTON, Tyne & Wear NE37 2BU Ask for details of NBL/DUR family history research in depth by THE local expert, working for YOU.