Hello Thanks to everyone who has taken an interest in this little problem. It seems we've got bogged down. I've been in touch with Patrice off-line, and I also applied for help to one of the French forums. * there are no problems with the names of the people involved * it's the birth place of Mr Walsh that is the problem * my French connections propose Stedoft or Stedopt, which were my original thoughts once I'd discounted the next bit * the Ste cannot be 'saint', as places with saint's names in the British Isles do not differentiate between male and female saints, as they do here in France * if this Walsh is part of the Walsh ship-building fraternity in Nantes, which is just down the road from where Patrice is working, I would expect all his papers to be in order, including a document with his place of birth on it * this would be copied by the clerk, who may have had the odd difficulty with Irish handwriting. I would doubt the witnesses would know where he came from, let alone be able to say it aloud for the clerk to guess at.- though they are not illiterate as they have both signed * another suggestion from my French correspondents is that the names as they believe they are written might make sense if said aloud with a proper Irish accent, though what that would be I don't know considering the difference between Belfast and Cork for example * it'll be interesting to see if a similar sort of problem arises when the widow dies * I have been transcribing and listing the Births Marriages and Deaths in this parish for a good ten years now; the 19th century stuff should be easier than, say, 17th century parish registers, but often isn't; this morning's crop was however a delight . I have suggested to Patrice to do what I do when I have this sort of a problem - use lots of question marks, and leave the researchers to scratch their heads over it :) Liz Owen, in SW France, where the weather is warming up; Spring could be on the way