Dear Cousins, I am going over many records I've accumulated over time and have organized in some fashion, but not brought together with a lot of new information. I have tons of notebooks of things I've collected and I paw through the notebooks trying to find what I want. My files on two computers are about the same -- I forget what I've named something and what directory I put it in. ANYWAY, I am going over old records. My disordered organization is a good reason to review things I've taken for granted. Have you've ever had the experience of walking into a room looking for something and going 'round in circles and not finding it, and then turning to go out of the room, you spot it because your view has been altered? Well, I find that is often the case with my old information. One thing I've been doing is re-examining records for the Delaware Upper Hundred and Soldier's Delight Hundred in Baltimore County, Maryland where my Pennington/Pembertons lived. I've been taking each census record and examining the entire hundred for the years. Here are some funny things that remind me that life is not linear, but circular. First, I lived in this same area myself before I knew my ancestors had lived here in the mid -1700's. I am an Oregonian, and returned there. My first ex-husband's ancestors seem to be there too. He was a Californian. My middle daughter's husband's surname is found there. He's an Australian. I built a house for this daughter nearby. Some of the people living near my Penningtons were named Woolery. There is a large old historic Victorian house built in the next town down the road from me here in Oregon by the Woolery family. There's a Boring, Maryland and a Boring, Oregon, named for the same family, no doubt. E-Mail doesn't permit me to go into all the hows of proving the Penningtons (who lived in Delaware Upper Hundred and the Pembertons who were first there, and moved down the road to Soldiers Delight are the same family, but it comes down to comparing all possible records, and also for the neighbors surrounding them in each locality. Now what I am doing is re-examining the census images for the Delaware Upper Hundred, and instead of copying down how many people were in each household for each Pennington or Pemberton, I am copying information about the people who lived around them, who are also found in other localities where I have found my target family. After the War of 1812 my Penningtons are found in Belmont, Guernsey and Harrison County, OH. The Frizzels/Frizzle, etc. family are found in both. So are the Davises. So are the Bakers. The Hardin/Hardings/Harbins. My great-Uncle's name was Lloyd Lucas Pennington: there are both Lucas and Lloyd names. Now, the problem with my family is that they vanish from the records for a prolonged time, in the mid to late 1700's, so I am working the Delaware Hundred and Soldiers' Delight Hundred names backward as well. Christopher Gist lived here! He formed his Rangers from here! These are names of the same families who trekked into the Valley of Virginia, down to the NW/SW Perimeter, along the Blue Ridge, and peple who went into the Southside, east of the Blue Ridge. Remember that maxim I like to repeat: Some stayed and some rode on! I now have something to add to that: Some came back! I think maybe my Penningtons went south and then came back to Baltimore county. I'm not sure, so that's where this interweaving of families comes into play again. I'm taking another look as I turn 'round to walk out the door. Families found with the Pembertons in Soldiers' Delight are Odell (connected to Clifford Odell, I'm sure), Choate/Shoat, Dimmett/Demmitt, found in the Southside, and in SW VA. Names In the Delaware Upper Hundred found in Virginia, WVA and beyond: Lawrence Logsden; George Ogg (I think this name may be Hogg/Hoge in Frederick County, VA) Dorsey Peddicord; Elisha Lane; John Lindsay; Pool; Manning; Chapman; Goodwin; Major; Stevenson; Hammond. There are lots of others that are too ubiquitious to include. Also, some names here are linked to Pennington families (supposedly) other than mine: Sweeting and McAllister. What do you think, with this second look?? Jim Pennington wrote me that some of the Pennington DNA results show a probability that several of the Pennington groups not previously thought to be linked (by Others) are likely related. I've been saying it for years! We are all part of one another! We are all part of a giant circle, and for infinitely small specks of time we pause at various Crossroads, and time, like fireflies, is captured in a bottle, or sometimes by a census taker. Love, Your Cousin who goes round in Circles, Carolyn Carolyn McDaniel cmacdee@centurytel.net ========================================= --- Visit American Crossroads --- http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~amxroads --- Visit Backcountry Crossroads --- http://www.backcountrycrossroads.com