Hello Listers Many thanks to Peter and also to Doreen who responded directly to me. The suggestion is that Frances was a Brown born in Marden Kent to William and Jane. She married a Foot and had children Ann and Henry both born 1821 in West Coker. She also had other children who Doreen found who were therefore Foots not Purchases. Possibly Mr Foot died and she then married Thomas Purchase and had more children. It appears that Ann, who is a Foot, has Henry who is noted in the 1851 census in the Purchase household as Henry Curry Foot indicating that his mother may not have been married to Mr Curry but gave the child the name of his father linked to hers. On arrival in Australia in 1857 as an assisted immigrant under the name of Henry Curry he said Henry Foot was his uncle (and sponsor). He also said his mother was dead. He then uses the name Henry Curry for the rest of his life and on his baptism in 1863 in Yass (yes -a bit late) he said he was born in 1841 and his father was Henry and his mother Ann. He also gave his birth date as September 4th 1841 which doesn't fit with a June Quarter Registration in Yeovil. For conformation I think I will need to get the GRO cert. for his birth which seems to be: Free BMD Birth Index Name: Henry Foot Date of Registration: Apr-May-Jun 1841 Registration District: Yeovil Inferred County: Somerset Volume: 10 Page: 549 Peter thanks also for the Milborne Port suggestion which seems to fit much better for the father of Henry. There are a lot of Curry's in southern England - and Henry may well be the illegitimate son of one of them. I will check out all the details and the earlier marriages and censuses but you have both set me on the right path. Migration to another country was obviously a good opportunity to call yourself whatever you wanted. Little did they know it would all come out in the end. Regards Jill Forster Sydney