List members I have received this request from Karen Abbott and have just sent her this reply:- (i) I do not thing that I can help you directly with stories about Belle Boyd but I may be able to direct you to where you can find such stories for this "spirited young lady". (ii) I have these Books on Belle Boyd and her family:- 1. Belle Boyd, Confederate Spy, by Louis A. Siguad, 1949. [NEED TO GET FULL BOOK DETAILS, - PUBLISHER AND LIBRARY OF CONGRESS NUMBER] 2. The Parrish family including the allied families of Belt, Boyd, Cole and Malone, Clokey, Garrett, Merryman, Parsons, Price, Tipton, , with special reference to Mercelia Louise Boyd .... Genealogist Katherine Cox Gottschalk. Compiled and published by Scott Lee Boyd. Santa Barbara, Calif., 1935. 9-413 p. 36-14655 entry No. 13014 3. The Boyd family including the allied families of Bell, Braken, Cullar, Cunningham, Finley, Gaut, Hoover, Hough, Markle, McGrew, Parrish, Perry, Pinkerton, Scholl, Speer, Warfel, Welday, Williams, with special reference to Mercelia Louise Boyd ... Genealogist Katherine Cox Gottschalk. Compiled and published by Scott Lee Boyd. Santa Barbara, Calif., 1935. 330 p. 36-6743. entry No. 2067. 4. Belle Boyd in camp and prison, Belle Boyd's autobiography, available at Berkeley County Historical Society. [BCHS] (Cal Boyd - 8/2/2008) (iii) I assume that you have already been in contact with the Berkeley County Historical Society in West Virginia? I understand that they are in the house that Belle Boyd's parents lived in, in Martinsburg, Virginia - Now WVA. So I am not sure what stories they may have - real or not - about her. (iv) The second Scott Lee Boyd above is about her family which starts with a William Boyd (whom it is thought to have married Margaret McClain). There was a brother Thomas Boyd and perhaps a second brother John Boyd whom the book claims is William's son John but he would only be about 8 or 9 years old when they came on the ship and this John Boyd was supposed to have had a family. So this claim in Scott Lee Boyd's book is wrong. When I saw the book in Washington County, PA at Mindy Householder's home, I was looking at the data on William's son Robert to another Boyd family from PA that went to Iredell Co., NC. I think it was mainly about the son William and his descendants. While Belle Boyd's family descends from William's son Samuel Boyd, who married Mary Beckett. Mindy's husband is a descendant of William, the father, but I am not sure which child he descendants from. So if you need Mindy's Email address to see what is said about Belle Boyd's family and anything about her during the War. (v) Last year, when I visited Adington, VA, I was given a 2 page letter from Mrs Sue Boyd Barton to Miss Mary Nelson which talks about her stay in Knoxville at the Boyd house which was the Old Blount Mansion written in 1932. I do not know if the McClung Historical Collection at East Tennessee History Centre, Knoxville, TN have any other material on Belle Boyd and her stay the Winter of 1862 and Spring of 1863. (vi) You may also like to contact the Old Blount Mansion Museum in Knoxville, TN to see if they have any stories about her. (vii) I have five raw files, but all these are on the family genealogy and do not have any creditable stories about her, expect one mentioned that she shot a northern soldier after he had insulted her mother. viii) In early 2008, I wrote to:- T Strader USA belle-boyd@juno.com who said he has a distant cousin of Belle Boyd. So you may like to Email him to see if he has any stories that may help your project. ix) I will post your message to the Boyd@rootsweb.com Net list, so that any descendants or relatives of Belle Boyd can contact you directly with stories. (x) Our former genealogist, Cal Boyd, would have been able to help you but he lost his family tree records in New Orleans during the flood and in recent years has had several stokes, so I very much doubt if he could help you now. I know that several of you belong to the same family Branch as Belle Boyd's family came from, so if you are able to provide any stories or add any other sources that Karen my be able to look up could you please advise her directly on the above Email address. The family tree data I have for Belle Boyd is:- V1 Isabelle (Belle) Boyd, b 9/5/1844 (Martinsburg, Va.), d 11/6/1900 (Kilbourn, [now Wisconsin Dells] Wisconsin), m 25/8/1864 (England ?), Samuel Wylde Hardinge, son of Hardinge, b 18xx, dc 1865/66, and had issue:- m 2ndly 17/3/1869, Col. John Swainston Hammond, son of Hammond, b 18xx, d 19xx, and had issue, Div 1/11/1884, m 3rdly 7/1/1885, Nathaniel Rue High, son of High, b 18xx, d 19xx, and had no issue:- Thank you Mike Boyd Historical Committee, HBS ----- Original Message ----- From: Karen Abbott To: Mike Boyd Sent: Saturday, May 21, 2011 7:15 AM Subject: Belle Boyd Dear Mr. Boyd, I hope you don't mind my writing to you; you were copied on an email from Lauren Boyd McLachlan a few weeks ago. I'm working on a book for HarperCollins about female Civil War spies, and I'm currently researching the life of Belle Boyd. I've been in contact with a few of Belle's ancestors, and your name always comes up. Do you have any good stories or family lore about Belle? I know you're busy touring at the moment, but I'd love to talk with you whenever it's convenient. My number is 917-434-2663. Thanks very much, and have a good weekend. Karen Abbott New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City and American Rose. www.karenabbott.net