Mary writes: >it just seems to me that all of came from ireland. Most, probably; all, not necessarily. Reason: 'Faris' and its numerous variants are very common surnames on both sides of the little pond. That is, there are loads of them in Scotland and the north of England, and loads in Northern Ireland. Undoubtedly, most of those in Northern Ireland went there during the plantation of Ulster, a policy implemented by James I of Great Britain (formerly James VI of Scotland). These people, so-called Scotch-Irish, were mainly presbyterians. Many tens of thousands of them emigrated to America before the Revolution. Considering the meaning of the surname, it is unlikely that all Farises descend from a single Faris progenitor. There were probably multiple Faris emigrations from Scotland to Northern Ireland. Don Haynie _________________________________ Dr Donald T. Haynie Department of Biomolecular Sciences UMIST PO Box 88, Manchester M60 1QD England Tel: +44 (0) 161 200 8919 Fax: +44 (0) 161 236 0409 _________________________________