Hi Norman, Thanks very much for the interesting email, I'm only sorry that none of your names tie in with mine. You might be interested in the following information about the MELLALIEU family I received from Betsy Hodges in Virvinia: The original Mallalieu (and it's various spellings) came from a little village in France at the bottom of the Alps - name was Thomas Marralew - He was my 10th great grandfather - born around 1550's - anyway, the King of France in the late 1500's declared that everyone would be Catholic. The Mallalieus and all the other French Huguenots refused so the King declared that those who refused to follow the Catholic Church would be killed. The event is called the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's. (I believe it occurred in 1587). Elizabeth the 1st was sitting on the throne of England and was extremely Protestant, especially after the ruling of her half sister "Bloody" Mary who was Catholic, and granted all French Huguenots religious freedom. The Huguenots escaped out of France and the Mallalieus ended up disembarking in Kent. They were noted to be very good woolen clothiers and sent to live in the Manchester area. The King of France realized, after the fact, that he had made a TREMENDOUS mistake with the massacre of the Huguenots because with this huge amount of people either being killed or moving to England, there went a lot of his tax dollars and labor force. He later issued the Edict of Nantes declaring religious freedom but by that time it was too late to get the people to return. Warmest wishes Allan > Hi Allan, > I also have both MELLALIEU and COLLINGE on my family tree among my other > Middleton connections. > My direct line is VERITY. A jane MELLALIEU born circa 1888 Worsley, > Lancashire married James VERITY, my great great grandfathers brother. James, > son of the above James, married a Jane COLLINGE in 1868. And an Ellen > COLLINGE married, 1895, John James VERITY, son of James. > My VERITY`s were Huguenot-in origin and i would be interested in contacting > Laura re the Middleton Huguenot research-if that were-possible, hence my > e-mail to you. > Allan, would you have Laura`s e-mail address.?? > My VERITY line in Middleton, were very much into silk weaving, especially > the women among them, which might reinforce the Huguenot connection. > Norm.