I have been interested in migration between Ulster and north east England for some time because that was the route some of my ancestors took. I did wonder whether anyone had undertaken a deeper study on the subject. I also wondered whether the link between the north east and Ulster went back before the steel and coal industries and that Ulstermen came across to take in the harvest (and as the museum at Stalling Busk shows to shear the sheep). My great grandfather Patrick Callan from Drumgoose in County Monaghan appears in Middlesbrough in 1870 when he marries. The census and certificates for him indicate he is a labourer in the steel works. However, my father understood that this job had been combined with the job of recruiting agent going into pubs, railway stations and other places Irish might congregate and persuading people not to go home after the harvest but to go into the steelworks. Whether this job was specific to him or whether in fact the steelworks paid a bounty for recruits I do not know. However it is possible that Ulstermen doing the recruiting might bring in more Ulstermen. My limited reading of the census for South Bank shows a number of Monaghan and Armagh men. Whilst Patrick Callan may have been coming to an area he knew - I understand that, at least immediately after the famine the family came to England to work - I have no suggestion that my Connelly ancestors from Tyrone ever did. Joseph Patrick Connelly reputedly ran away from Pomeroy on his way to school and turned up at his sister's in Newcastle. Looking at the facts his brother marries a County Tyrone girl in Leadgate in 1866. At least one sister arrives in Newcastle in 1866 or 7. By 1871 Joseph Patrick is in Gateshead, three of his sisters are in Newcastle and his brother is still in Leadgate. Again in looking through the records there are a lot of Tyrone names. Incidentally for anyone whose ancestors passed through the north east Brooms is not the only church recording place of origin on marriage entries. Stockton (which covers most of Teesside at that date) does so around 1850. It names the parents and if they are living says where. I think the entries are townlands rather than parishes but I have not checked this. Teresa