[N.b. Fr. Thomas Sullivan kindly thanked me off-list for my un-helpful help, but I thought that the broader matter in hand might be of some use to the list as a whole.] Dear Thomas, These questions about identifying obscure places known only from their Latin names seem to come up with some frequency on the list (as the Ste-Fripette string of a coupla months ago suggests) and I'm thinking that putting together some sort of FAQ for the list with this one on it might be worth doing (as long, of course, as *I* don't have to actually do much of it). I should say that what little knowledge I may possess in this area is the fruit of several years' _ad hoc_ mucking about in the now-dry vineyards of the Eure-et-Loir (Chartres region). Each departement is, of course, different, with its own naming patters, surviving sources, published secondary works, yadayadayada.... You might therefore tell your friend that I didn't mean (necessarily) to imply that the Gometz So. of Paris which I know from the SMdC documents is *his* _Gometicis_. Only that _Gometicis_ **might** permutate into something like "Gometz" in modren French, and that there *may* very well be one (or more) of these Goemtzi in "Burgundy" (each delineated from the other, in modern bureau de la Poste fashion, by added sobriquets like "G-la-Ville", "G-St-Martin", "G-la-Petite", "G-sous-Quelquechose", etc.). Best from here, Christopher ByeTheBye, in my experience, the DHGH, while quite a good source for major places ("cities"/episcopal towns) and many "secondary" places ("market towns", as the English would term them), it is by *no* means definitive nor "complete", not mentioning *many* minor places which, while they may have had some significance in the 11-12th (say) cc., have since been obliated by History, and gone back to sleep, as it were, after their moment in the (local) sun (not Baudrillart's [nor Cottineau's] fault: there were, after all, *thousands* of "priories" in middlevil France (alone).) Thus the need to pursue the dreadful little round-about squirrel-paths which I've mentioned. But shucks, they don't call it "local" history for nothing. The sport is in the chase. ____________________________________________________________________ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape WebMail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com.