A great aunt of mine married a William Smartt of Trim, Co. Meath, Ireland in 1873. He is described as a 'salesmaster' of Smithfield Market in Dublin. He later expanded his operations to Manchester in England, presumably shipping livestock from Dublin to Manchester to be sold there. It seems he was born ca 1840, but I have been unable to confirm his parentage. His father is described as William Smartt, gentleman, of Trim in the marriage register. There are records of a William Smartt who was governor of Trim gaol. He married Ellen and had a family born in the early 1920s. Ellen died ca 1824 and William later married Alicia. She had a family between ca 1828 and 1831 but died in 1832. I wonder if William then took a third wife and had a third family which might have included William the 'salesmaster'. I saw a record some years ago which mentioned a house called Killcooley, near Trim, in connection with William the 'salesmaster'. I have since found that a Philip Purdon lived in Killcooley and his wife was Ellen Smartt, one of the children of William the 'Gaol Governor' by his first wife. Could it ne that the Gaoler's putative third wife also died young and left William the future salesmaster with no mother? His half sister Ellen would have been old enough to be his mother and may have taken him into her family and reared him to adulthood. The 'salesmaster' died sometime between the 1901 census and the 1911 census. Does anybody out there know anything about this family? Tom Johnston.