This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/0FVBAEB/203.5.2.1.1.1 Message Board Post: Thanks, Jean. My grandfather certainly would have subscribed to this view. He was quite adamant about the Wages name -- and term Black Dutch --- being connected to Europe. As for the Welsh, well, you as you know, there was a very swarthy group of Iberians that predominated throughout the British Isles before the advent of the Celts, the Romans and, eventually, the Anglo-Saxons. All this "darkness" in the Wages clan my be these swarthy characteristics typically attributed to many Welsh people. Take a good look at Catherine Zeta Jones, a Welsh actress who has occasionally played Spanish and Latina roles, and you'll understand why. Incidentally, I've seen pictures of the Wages side of the family, and they're considerably fairer complexioned than the Roberts side. My grandfather Erskine seemed to take after the Roberts side, while Buddy and some of the others looked more like the Wages with pale to dark blue eyes. Regards, Jim Langcuster