In a message dated 30/06/2004 14:55:56 GMT Daylight Time, john.tillotson@virgin.net writes: I have a copy of the birth certificate of an ancestor ANN ILEY. She was born in Wolsingham on 23rd May 1838. Her father JOSEPH was a 'Labourer'. What puzzles me is that the place of birth was "Fightingcock's Wolsingham". What or where was this ? . . Sounds like a pub, doesn't it? However, I don't think it was. I think it is more likey to have been an isolated farm, but I cannot find it on the OS 1st edition 1" map, nor is it mentioned in Whellans' Dirctory of Co Durham (2nd edition 1894). This leads me to think that perhaps it did not survive into the later part of the nineteenth century. I have also looked at the "Durham Family History Gazateer", published by Durham Record office and based on all the place-names occurring on the OS 1st edition 6" map. The only Fighting Cocks it lists is the well-known one in Middleton St George parish, originally a pub but also the site of a junction on the Stockton and Darlington Railway. That is a long way from Wolsingham! . . 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.