Nora at [email protected] writes: << My Castlebar cousins called it Pon (as in pond) toon (tune) as did my father who was born outside of Castlebar in 1903. Has anyone else heard it pronounced differently? >> Nora, I had a letter from someone in Castlebar who pronounces it "Puntoon" - a bit different, but still not too close to "Pantin". I think the mysterious "normayo" may be right about there being no Pontoon in 1851. It's certainly not in the townlands listing (from 1851, also), but I do have a very long list of townlands that did exist at that time.........and were missed by the listing's compilers. By the way, if you try a google search, you get a lot of interesting websites - but none of them seem to apply to the elusive Pantin, Co. Mayo. Pete Schermerhorn, in the glorious Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts