Thank you Linda C. Baker, and again thank you Velma, for your recent postings regarding Birdwell families in early Connecticut records. While we Birdwell researchers descend from just about all of George Birdwell’s (c1721-1781) fourteen children, this is the one search which binds us all together. The search for the origins of our George of Virginia is our common goal. This 9-7-1671 marriage of Mary Birdwell to John DIX in Wethersfield, Conn. is very intriguing. Quite awhile back I saw mention of her in queries dated from 1917 and 1921. Whoever wrote those queries speculated that she might be a BIDWELL but they were unable to connect her to a given family in that area. Since this question was raised so long ago, I’ve wondered if someone might have positively identified her during the last 80 years. Perhaps there is a published lineage for either of these families in New England; DIX (her spouse) or HUNN (her son-in-law). What makes Connecticut so interesting is the possible presence of other Birdwell families in later records. From indexes and some website I’ve seen the following items put out there (are they accurate, or not ?); 2-23-1751 Abigail Birdwell, birth “of Hartford, CT” abt. 1772 Abigail Birdwell, marriage to Ashbel SPENCER 5-15-1787 John Burdwell, signed petition “of Simsbury, CT” The index for the 1790 Census for Connecticut also shows these three “Birdwell” families: John Birdwell, Simsbury Town, Hartford Co. Ozeas Birdwell, East Hartford Town, Hartford Co. Stephen Birdwell, Litchfield Town, Litchfield Co. So while it looks promising that there were some Birdwell families living up there during the 1700’s, I’m sorry to report that at least one of them wasn’t a Birdwell. The Stephen shown in Litchfield Co. was in fact a BIDWELL. I looked into him a little bit and even though there are other sites showing him and his kids as “Birdwell”, his grave and several of his children are in the “East Burying Ground” in Litchfield. The cemetery shows their graves are all marked as BIDWELL. A Bidwell researcher then confirmed via a query that this Litchfield family was definitely not a Birdwell family. So until one of us looks at the actual records in CT (or their microfilms) we can’t be sure what surname these Connecticut families had. Mary, Abigail, John, and Ozeas could be Birdwell, or they might be families with some other similar names (Bardwell, Bedwell, Bidwell, Bodwell, Birdsell, ect ...). I would like to think that they are some of ours. But this will have to be established with certainty before we’ll know. Are one of you looking for a fun genealogy challenge ? I believe that Connecticut has some pretty good surviving early records. Good Hunting, Weldon J. Birdwell, in Montana