Listers, I thought his little story worth telling - perhaps there is a moral in it somewhere. I have been searching for the daughter of Cyril Whittington BROWN and May NIGHTINGALE. Cyril & May were married in Reigate in 1907. Cyril inherited the family brick-making business in Earlswood. They had 2 children. Eric Cyril - born in Reigate in 1908, and Jessie L. Now, I thought Jessie's birth in Essex in 1913 was odd - out of county & for no real reason. Well, this afternoon, I carried out some searches in Ancestry and found Another Jessie - Jessie M BROWN with parents BROWN & NIGHTINGALE, born in Reigate in 1914. I checked out BROWN NIGHTINGALE marriages for the period 1905 - 1915 on FreeBMD. Guess what, My ancestors are there married in Reigate in 1907, and then another couple, Albert BROWN and Florence (sic) NIGHTINGALE married in 1907 in Billericay, Essex!! OK, I have started to look for the marriage of Jessie M BROWN, and found a possibility in Croydon. I have Jessie M BROWN = James G FREELAND in Croydon in the Jun ¼ of 1931. There are 4 children all born in Croydon between 1932 and 1939. Sheena M J in 1932, William N M in 1933, James G in 1936 and Donald J in 1939. No children were born between Sept 1936 and Apr 1939, which leads me to think that hubbie was off to serve his country, and may have returned home during the war, wounded. I libve close enough to Croydpn to visit the archive and check out the papers of that time for BMD announcements. So, I may have solved my brickwall - thanks to Ancestry and FreeBMD. I thought this little tale would say, "Please persevere with your research, think laterally, and look under every stone." In the meantime, if a member of the FREELAND family reads this, please get in touch. Richard Brown Bromley, Kent U.K.