Lorraine

Thanks for the comments. It was interesting to note that by 1998 there were proportionately more Sauls in Australia than in England, while there were very few in Ireland. There could be many interpretations of that, but one is that the St Patrick connection may be minimal. If I really had to reduce the potential sources right down, I would say that there were probably just the two, i.e. the norse Sjolfr and the village of Salle. There is even a chance that they could be distantly related; Sall was in an area strongly associated with the Vikings. Of course, this is all conjecture, and even techniques such as DNA testing will be of limited value where there are breaks in the line. I know I have one; my ggg grandmother was unmarried.

Peter Saul