Morning All, I have an exercise book that was hand written and copied in 1921 in Johannesburg, SA from the original by Gustarus Maxwell HALL to sell for a friend who acquired it, in a book sale. It has the HALL genealogical record of ancestors and descendants and some collateral relations of John HALL Esquire formally of Mollance, Kirkcudbrightshire (I presume Scotland). It was commenced by Maxwell HALL and completed in Nov 1892 by Charles E. HALL. As I have skimmed through this, I notice this family come from Scotland and the UK. Towards the back of the book I noticed that a branch of the HALL family arrived in South Africa - Edward B. HALL and married Ethel Marian YOUNG in 1918. Some name mentioned are: Stephenson, Bird, Vaux and Kirkbride. Decent from HALLS of Carlaton Family of William PARKE Esquire and Descendants of John HALL Esquire and some more. The exercise book has got some water damage, however it is readable, however very interesting to read. If interested, please contact me off list as my friend would dearly love it to go to a HALL family or descendant who would find value and interest in it. Regards, Glynis

On 21 May 2011, glynis wrote: > Morning All, > > I have an exercise book that was hand written and copied in 1921 in > Johannesburg, SA from the original by Gustarus Maxwell HALL to > sell for a > friend who acquired it, in a book sale. It has the HALL > genealogical record > of ancestors and descendants and some collateral relations of John > HALL > Esquire formally of Mollance, Kirkcudbrightshire (I presume > Scotland). It > was commenced by Maxwell HALL and completed in Nov 1892 by Charles > E. HALL. You presume correctly, though that county no longer exists as such. There was a re-organization of counties in the UK, mainly consolidation into larger units, though the largest, Yorkshire, was divided into two parts and a new county of Tyne and Wear, around Newcastle and Sunderland, came into existence; examples in Scotland were combining West Lothian, Midlothian and East Lothian to form "Lothians", Roxburgh, Berwick and Selkirk to form "Borders", Ayr, Lanark and Renfrew to form "Strathclyde", and (this case) Kirkcudbright and Dumfries to form "Dumfries and Galloway" and everything north and south-west of Inverness plus the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland and the islands off the Mull of Kintyre to form "Highlands". In addition, some larger counties were simply further enlarged by absorption of small adjoining counties. Other new counties are Grampians and Central. England and Wales were changed similarly, but Northern Ireland seems to have retained its original six counties without change. I have a copy of "The Faber Atlas" (Sinclair), published by GEO, Oxford, in 1956, which shows all the old counties, and the Michelin Motoring Atlas of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, published in 1996, which shows the new counties. The above list is the best I can manage by comparing two maps compiled in very different formats. By "formally" I presume you mean "formerly": I cannot see Mollance on the Michelin map, but it may have been the name of a property rather than of a village; properties would be unlikely to appear on a tourist map, if they are not historic sites like Scone Palace or Balmoral Castle. Andrew Rodger rodgera@audioio.com