Dear friends, I'd like to find out which of you are interested in serious and scholarly exchange of ideas and information focusing on to the ALDRIDGE, ARLEDGE, ALLRED, ELDRIDGE, ALDRED, etc. and related families in colonial tidewater Virginia and Maryland (many of these families migrated to central NC and SC and eastern TN). This would focus upon the 1600s through mid-1700s in America, and would most likely also involve research involving antecedents in the Old World as well. It will probably also involve bringing in researchers working on related families, since the paths of various families are deeply interconnected. I'd like to start a separate discussion list for this group, which I foresee as different from a surname-based list or a county-based list. I know of a core group of people who have been seriously researching these families (the careful and well-documented historical work of Mike Marshall, Teri Allred, and Graham Louer comes to mind), but don't want to leave off others who are pursuing this. We need to work hard to try to uncover and discover the true connections and identities of these families. This may involve some revisionist history that disproves some earlier accounts of family relationships long believed to be true. The primary purpose of this proposed group would not be to determine our own ancestral lines, but rather to pool our resources to come to an understanding of all of these families' settlement patterns and interconnections. If you know of serious researchers who might like to be a part of this, please contact me and feel free to pass this invitation on to them. Also, if you have suggestions about how to more clearly define the focus of this endeavor and especially *what to call it*, I'd be very grateful! Pam ************************************* Pam Wilson wilsonpam@mindspring.com Marietta, GA Arledge Family History Project http://www.geocities.com/heartland/prairie/8208