beacock wrote: > While this may seem like an unlikely suggestion, try searching the IGI in > Russia. There are quite a few ANDERSON and FORSTER births listed there. > Noticed these as I was searching for my own ancestors who were born in > Northumberland, and moved to Russia re: employment opportunities in > relation to Northumberland's connection to the emerging Russian railway > system. Why specifically Russia? Yes, a lot of North East rail workers helped build Russia's rail network, but they helped build rail networks all over the world. The North-East's unique expertise in mining and electrical generation/transmission was (and indeed still is) utilized world-wide too. A relation of mine, an ordinary lead miner from Allendale, found his expertise in great demand and in his twenties he was appointed manager of a gold mine near Ballarat in Victoria. A cousin of mine from Co Durham is the latest of a long line of engineers from his company who travels the world to supervise the installation of generating equipment. His brother is currently based in Hong Kong as representative of a local engineering company. There was nothing unique about Russia as a likely destination of North-East workers. Perhaps we should generalise your suggestion to something like - if you fail to find a relation on the IGI in the UK, don't forget that the IGI covers over countries too. Brian -- Brian Pears (Gateshead, UK) http://www.bpears.org.uk/ Joint List Admin NORTHUMBRIA Genealogy Mailing List GENUKI Northumberland Maintainer