Bill, Glad to have you with us. I am particularly interested to see the connection between your #2 and #3, and I am wondering what documentation you have for that. > 1 Thomas Blanshard - Born 1590 in France > 2 John Blanshard - Born 1625 in London, England died 1687 in Dunstable, > Mass, married to Elizabeth 1649 in Charlestown, Mass. This John sounds like a match for "Deacon" John Blanchard, a founder of Dunstable, but with a variety of discrepancies: Deacon John died in 1693, rather than 1687; there is no evidence he was married as early as 1649 (and certainly no children known to have been born before 1659); and, most importantly, he was definitely not the son of Thomas Blanchard the immigrant ancestor who happens to be the most "popular" among our list members. The evidence of probate records shows that John was the brother of William Blanchard of Boston and the son of Ann Blanchard of Salem and Chelmsford. The name of Ann's husband is often said to be Joseph, but we unfortunately have no proof of that. John's will of 1693 mentions a son Benjamin (who was born in Chelmsford 1664/5 Mar 15) as well as three other sons. The other three sons are known to have raised families in Massachusetts, but Benjamin is a complete blank, other than his birth record and his father's will. This is where your #3 comes in... > 3 Benjamin Blanshard - Died June 05, 1719 in Nansemond County, > Virginia. He was married to Catherine. Children Robert, > Catherine, Benjamin, Absalom. It is conceivable that John's son Benjamin went off to Virginia to make his fortune, and the description of this Benjamin in Nansemond County is (so far) consistant with the idea that he came from Massachusetts in the hope of getting rich. Since John's Benjamin was presumably still in Massachusetts in 1693 and somewhat past the typical age of "youthful indiscretions", and because there are no records of any such, we can assume that he was not forced to flee for a romantic reason. If Benjamin had left for religious reasons (such as becoming a Quaker), he would undoubtedly have gone no further than Rhode Island, or possibly Pennsylvania or New Jersey. Given continual state of war with the French and Indians, the most likely fate of Benjamin is an unrecorded death in Massachusetts or vicinity, without issue, but it is also possible that he went out into the wide world and never came back. The question is: how do we know where Benjamin of Nansemond came from? The names of his children do not suggest a link to the Massachusetts family -- they might be from his wife's family, of course. Is there a tradition among this Benjamin's descendants that their family was founded by a man from Massachusetts? Or is this link something that was put forward by a modern genealogist as an interesting hypothesis? John Chandler