Joan, those were my thoughts also ( people marrying within a close region ) and when I said 400 people in a parish, I meant just that and not merely the townland, although when you do find the same name families in different townlands, they often turn out to be very close by - a couple of miles at most. But then I was thinking of the marriage broker or arranger used so much in Ireland in the 19th century, they may have introduced couples from different areas altogether. My grandfather, from Cork, married my grandmother from Wexford Town in 1904 in Wexford, and he was working and living in Longford at the time ( although for a cousin, so perhaps that doesn't count ). Its all very perplexing. Mary