Dear Cousin WW, and Cousins on the list, Thanks for your positive and helpful comments on expanding identities for our ancestors through inclusion of religious and economic aspects of their lives. While I was on the road (!) Our Isabel loaned me some Delaware record books. In some early deeds I found an Evan Davis who is a good possibility for my Davis ancestor. (My own Evan Davis died in Belmont county, OH in 1812, and his daughter Sally administered his estate. Sally Davis married John Pennington, fresh from the War of 1812 in Baltimore County Maryland.) In the body of some of the deeds this Evan was identified not as a saddler or saddle-maker, but as a Saddletree maker, which points to him as working with wood not leather. The David Davis who appears in other deeds in New Castle County is referred to as a turner, making him also a wood worker, and thereby it would seem that both had this type of trade in common. Traditionally, guild members in the British Isles and Europe passed down their guild trades within families. So this is always a good clue for relationships, even much later in the colonies. Cordwainers are another trade which seems to run in several of the Maryland Delaware Pennington families. A cordwainer is usually thought of as a shoemaker, but the trade actually encompassed any kind of leather work. I think this may be where new World Changes may largely come into play, with rigid membership in guilds passing by the wayside in the looser, freewheeling American tradespeople in the 18th century. Apprenticeship still took place, but not through a guild, and one could find work without having to belong to a guild. Although a saddlemaker certainly used and worked leather, they do not usually seem to be thought of as cordwainers in America. It was interesting to find Evan Davis referred to as a saddletree maker, which meant to me that there was a high degree of separation within these several interrelated trades, at least in New Castle County Delaware. Now I really hope to get a copy of Evan Davis' will and Sally's administration from Belmont county. Inclusion of woodworking items in his estate would be a confirmatory aspect of his identity. I only have the abstract of the will now. The religious aspect of identity is such a valuable and complex topic, I hope to have more time and space to dwell on it at length on the website. Carolyn McDaniel cmacdee@centurytel.net ========================================= To subscribe to the American Crossroads Discussion List: Send a message to: AMXROADS-L-request@rootsweb.com with the single word subscribe in the body of the message --- Visit American Crossroads --- http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~amxroads