Hi Denis, Sorry it's taken me a while to respond to your message from May! I have heard the story of John Handebo several times now, from researchers of both the HANDEBO name and also the surname HERBERT, which was my ancestral family. There is apparently some question that John's original name was HERBERT, and before or after the sheep-stealing conviction, changed it to HANDEBO. One version of the story is that John was the grandson(?) of one of the noble HERBERT families, i.e. Earl of Pembroke/Montgomery. The story goes that for some reason John's father was disinherited, and had to scour out a living for his family as a poor commoner. John was angry and stole the sheep from his grandfather (or whatever relation) to give to the poor and was caught and punished. In my HERBERT family we have the story that a direct ancestor of my gg-grandfather Patrick HERBERT, was disinherited from his wealthy and noble family for marrying a beautiful, but common and Catholic woman. My Patrick was from the area of Moate/Mount Temple, Westmeath. So... we've been trying to tie the two pieces of the story together - but no luck so far. Have you been in touch with Sue Catterall in Australia. She is also a descendant of John HERBERT/HANDEBO. If not, let me know and I send you her e-mail address. One other interesting piece of trivia - my family came to the Boston, Massachusetts, USA area and Sue's to Australia; a far distance to have the same family legend, don't you think? Sue On 12 May 2001, at 10:24, DL wrote: Hi All My name is Denis Dalziel, from Perth, Western Australia. I've been lurking for a while, and have decided add my list of names in a hope that someone else is researching them. Family (1) John Handebo (convict) sent to Australia on the "Andromeda 2" for sheepstealing in 1830. The main area of this family was Westmeath, he married Sarah Molloy in Dublin in 1811, and atleast some children were born in Kings County and he was caught stealing in Queen County. John's wife Sarah and 4 of their children joined him in NSW in 1836. Family (2) Peter Grimes came to Australia in 1841 on the "Alfred" with wife Emma Gilligan and 18 month old son John. They came from Mullingar, County Westmeath. Peter's parents were William and Ellen Grimes. Emma's parents were Walter and Mary Gilligan(nee Duffy). I would like to hear from anyone researching these families. Regards Densi ============================== Search over 1 Billion names at Ancestry.com! http://www.ancestry.com/rd/rwlist1.asp