Way back in the 1880's I was researching Ron's family as well as mine, his father's mother was a Clout from Brighton area, well I found hundreds and I mean hundreds in the Kent area not anything at the time to link them to the Brighton area, think most of them went down under to OZ and NZ, mostly changing the name to various missspellings of the name. Stan in Calgary Alberta told me that his Grandfather changed Clout to Clute because people were laughing at the original name when he emigrated with his family in the early 1900's. The Ozzie Clans done a lot of research also I passed on a lot that I had, to Pat in NZ, just before I came over to Canada almost 18 years ago to help Bhaylon when Gavin was 'due', Pat came to UK for a holiday, so we met up twice, once in London and once in Birmingham, then I was off to Canada. When Pat went back to NZ there was a big package from Stan, she then after looking at his work let him know I was in Canada and that Ron was closer to him than she was although they are all 3rd cousins. He sent me the same paper work, there were loads of family trees on A2 pages all linked into the Clout they were descended from. Oldest Clout, William had to be born pre 1530, his dau married 1563 [3rd child] giving her a low age to marry of 13 and 3 births and William marrying at 16, think that good to work on further, must check with Stan have checked with him lately on our family trees. William was buried 1562. Some of the surnames coming down into Ron's line are DENYSE/DENNIS pre 1670, BANKS pre 1650 POWEL{L} pre1710, RIM{M}INGTON pre 1705, SCOTT pre 1722 WENBOURNE/WIMBORNE pre 1696, Those were all in Kent, mainly the Hunton and Brenchley area. Other surnames HEDGER .. WOOL{L}DRIDGE .. SMART .. WELLS .. Daniel Wells married Winnifred Wells, his twin brothers Mark and Matthew married two of her sisters Ruth and Jane. Daniel had a another set of twins Isaac and Ruth, in all George Clout and Phoebe [Smart] had 16 children Mt favourite Clout couple are Thomas and Gift [nee Powell] when she died their marriage [not the longest] was almost 28 years and I think her husband and family must have loved her, as all her surviving children were named around the grave, Hope this hasn't been too long winded, is this the sort of thing you meant Sue when you suggested a Surname Topic ??? Reminding myself that I oughta get back into more family history work. Marlene on a Cold Dismal Wet Windy Day - 1st of 3 days [it's a Long Weekender as well] ___________________________________________________________ All new Yahoo! Mail "The new Interface is stunning in its simplicity and ease of use." - PC Magazine http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html