Dear Josie and Cousins on the List The name Swan was a derivitive from the early Swedish settlers along the Delaware, who were there long before Penn and the Quakers came along. The young Swedish men were called Svens or Swans. You might want to check out the Old Philadelphia article written in the 1800's by Rebecca Harding Davis, and take a look at the Swede/Finn pages -- both on the AMXROADS website. There are Swan connections to the Litzenberg(er) family of Washington and Greene Counties PA, one of whom married into the Pennington family while they lived near Winchester VA after the Revolutionary War. In Delaware Co., Randnor twp, PA George Litzenberger married Grace Coat(e)s, who was thereupon disowned from the Quaker faith. The Litzenberg(er) family later is found in Johnson County, IA with my own Pennington family, so once again, a continuing relationship developed and I believe these western PA relationships when investigated, will help identify mysterious Pennington connections between various Pennington clumps currently thought to be unrelated. Many Penningtons ended up in the Midwest, as mine did. Another George Litzenberger performed the second marriage of my GGGrandfather John Pennington. There is a Swan family webpage, and a genealogy written on the Litzenberg(er)s, which my correspondent Paul Roos has put into a gedcom at Ancestry.com. Access to this area of Ancestry is always free. Josie, I'm sorry, I do not have access to the web addresses at the moment, because of this dratted internet problem I'm having. I have 24 messages I can't access. It's making me crazy! Josie, try using google.com to search for some of these other surnames. I've had wonderful results with that. And of course, Genforum. The Briscoes are an old Maryland family. You would be able to find information on them at the Maryland archives. Dr. John Briscoe was one of the Northern Virginia settlers whose property from Lord Fairfax was surveyed by the young Virginia surveyor, Mr. George Washington. Some of Dr. Briscoes' property was in presentday Clarke County (Abraham -- The Indian Trader -- Pennington's was near what is now Berryville in Clarke County.) He also had tracts along Opequan Creek, (near Leetown, Frederick County, VA); also in Jefferson and Berkley, Counties, WVA. You can check the Library of Virginia for originals of these deeds. Our American Crossroads page -- http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~amxroads/Migrations/virginia.html has details of the first settlers. I've just been looking into the Hamptons (and Lewises) because our Cousin Cari has about a ton of Hampton Penningtons in her lineage! Hamptons also start back in Maryland, (Dents also, Cari; and Amoss families there too, Leigh). Andrew Hampton was in Northern Virginia (now Jefferson Co., WVA; purchased a tract in 1734 or 1735 from a likely John Smith for my Smith research.) Andrew Hampton moved to Brunswick/Lunenburg in Southern Virginia (a likely Pennington progression, too). He later moved to Anson County, NC and then SC. Andrew was likely son of John Hampton Senior, who moved east of the Blue Ridge into (presentday) Loudoun Co., VA. I've been finding lots of information that will be enormously helpful to American Crossroads searchers in Cecil Odell's books on "Old Frederick County, Virginia." Odell presents abstracts of deeds and records from counties made in the Northern Virginia Perimeter. He also sometimes details records from their previous localities in Maryland and Pennsylvania. He quotes Cecil County deeds for Abraham Pennington I hadn't seen before, naming Mary as Abraham's wife. Just as an example of the cream on the top of this dessert -- significant surnames here include Anderson, Johnson, Worthington, Stephenson, Davis, Hollingsworth, Hardin, Sargent (Largent from Cecil County,) Carter, Teague, Williams, Hiett (Hiatt, etc.), Lewis. Actually, the books contain little that isn't significant to our effort. I'm going to see if Mr. Odell might give American Crossroads purchasers a collective discount on these books. (As soon as I can get on the internet again.) I am pretty sure he is part of my Pennington/Pembertons of Baltimore County, MD. I believe the information in Orange/Frederick county is as significant to the Southern Virginia, Northern NC as the Philadelphia Perimeter and MD/DE Perimeter are. It is in Frederick County, VA that the Quakers once again were a vital part of the sphere of influence, as they established Hopewell Monthly Meeting in the early 1730's. We find them mingling again in the early NW/SW records. There is another sphere of Quaker influence which has largely been lost to us in Hanover County, Virginia (along with other records.) I find many of the same names in Hanover county as are found in Lunenburg and Brunswick Counties, VA. To sum up, and get back to Levi the Quaker, I think we may find clues and connection for Levi with Ta-dah! Abraham Pennington whose family was well established in Old Frederick County, Virginia. I think Mr. Odell's books are a good beginning point which we need to examine minutely for those connections. Please resend any messages sent to cmacdee@teleport.com in the last couple of days to this AOL address. I still can't get the teleport messages at this time, but I have hope! in the next few days. It is spring, isn't it?! Love, Your Cousin, Carolyn twocatherd@AOL.com