Dear Tony, > I should be interested to hear from anybody who has researched the NALDER > family of Alvescot and Challow. Partcularly interested in finding a link > between the founders of the engineering firm Nalder& Nalder of Challow, > near Wantage and Charles Nelm NALDER, who lived at Challow Court, Furze > Platt, Maidenhead from at least 1912 until 1940. I have not researched the family, but I can tell you that Charles was born in Challow, in 1861-1862, according to various censuses. Unfortunately, he seems to have been boarding at school in 1871, so it isn't easy to identify his parents that way. In 1881 Charles was a lodger at a house in Notting Hill, as was a widowed James H Nalder (an artist), aged 48, born in Alvescot. Once again, there is no explicit relationship between these two. There seem to be three male Nalders in the Challows in 1861. Only one was married at the time of the census - James, aged 28 (an artist). One of the others, Thomas (who was one of the 2 engineers) married later in 1861 in Alvescot. Since Thomas was married on 24 October 1861 (at Alvescot, to a Jane Allnutt), and had a daughter baptised in East Challow on 20 October 1862, it would be uncharitable, let us say, to suppose Charles was his son. So James looks the most likely father, and Charles Nelme Nalder is then the nephew of the engineers. Charles's birth is in FreeBMD in September quarter, 1861, too - before Thomas's marriage. The West Challow register seems to be as yet untranscribed. James Hall Nalder (artist) married Martha Anne Allnutt on 23 October 1860. (Another Allnutt and on almost the same date.) In the Alvescot register, the father's name for both James Hall Nalder and Thomas Nalder was given as James Hall Nalder, yeoman. And finally, when the younger James Hall Nalder died in 1886 (after a lingering illness, according to Jackson's Oxford Journal), his will was proved by his son and executor Charles Nelme Nalder, solicitor. I haven't yet found where "Nelme" comes from. Best wishes Paul -- Paul Betteridge, Leafield, Oxfordshire pbetteridge@pobox.com