Dear Colleagues, In 1950, when I was a student traveling to Wales to find information on my forebears, I stopped for a productive afternoon at the Monmouthshire Record Office, which I recall at that time was in Newport. Someone can enlighten me on that. When departing, I chatted congenially with the director of the office, who said emphatically that Monmouthshire was an English county. Back then it was always "Wales and Monmouthshire" implying some distinction. The "Wales and Monmouthshire" term left Monmouthshire somewhere alone, not really a part of Wales, but also not part of anything else, somewhat dangling as a probable part of England, since England was the closest country next door. There was absolutely no doubt about it in his mind that Monmouthshire was English. But he was clearly an Englishman, so I suspected he had biases, and I kept my mind open for other opinions. I have since been overwhelmed with the scholarly opinion that Monmouthshire is indeed a Welsh county, geographically, genetically, and historically. And of course now it is part of Wales. But I am nevertheless simply delighted when I look for records of Monmouthshire and find them in English databases and atlases where the rest of Wales is explicitly, perhaps emphatically excluded. This is not uncommon. Therefore when I find an English database, I always search it for Monmouthshire records. So if Englishmen are motivated to include Monmouthshire in their research and publication interests, let's let them believe it is an English county. Thomas Roderick (Rhydderch) Bar Harbor, Maine USA