This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: franciskeenan Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.burch/2334.3/mb.ashx Message Board Post: I took a look at a website (Access Genealogy) which has posted a short history of the Delaware Indians. I wanted to learn where they were from time to time and whether they had been in the same general geographic areas as was Thomas Burch (born 1751, PGC, Md.). The Delaware Indians occupied lands in eastern Pennsylvania near Philadelphia, southern New York, and most of New Jersey and Delaware. "As the whites, under the sanction of the Iroquois, crowded them out of their ancient homes, the Delaware removed, to the Susquehanna, settling at Wyoming and other points about 1742. They soon crossed the mountains to the headwaters of the Allegheny, the first of them having settled upon that stream in 1724. In 1751, by invitation of the Huron, they began to form settlements in east Ohio, and in a few years the greater part of the Delaware were fixed upon the Muskingum and other streams in east Ohio, together with the Munsee and Mahican, who had accompanied them from the east, being driven out by the same pressure and afterward consolidating with them." So, by the time Thomas Burch was born in 1751, the Delaware Indian tribe had removed to the Ohio territory. This, of course proves nothing and, if Clark was an Indian woman, she may have remained in the east with another tribe. All of this, however, is mere speculation. At first glance, one would assume that Thomas Burch was not near to the Delaware tribe, based upon the information about the tribe's home lands and movements. "About the year 1770, the Delaware received permission from the Miami and Piankishaw to occupy the country between the Ohio and White river(s) south, in Indiana (territory)where at one time they had 6 villages." The Wabash River lay just to the west of the White River and was a major travel route during this era as Fort Vincennes was upon the Wabash. Further north some 120 miles or so from Vincennes was what is now Fountain County, Indiana. However, nothing known to date suggested that Thomas Burch, while in the military, was anywhere but Virginia (West Virginia) and New Jersey. The above quotations were from the history of the Delaware Indians at the website mentioned. The website indicated that the information had been taken from: A HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIANS, 1906. (na) All of this piqued my interest. Why, for example, did Thomas Burch's sons go to Fountain County, Indiana, on the Wabash River? Did Thomas receive a bounty land warrant there as a result of his military service during the Revolutionary War? Also, the surname CLARK is a famous one and General Clark actually campaigned in the area where the Delaware settled in southern Indiana. Did the unknown CLARK woman who allegedly married Thomas Burch take the surname of this famous general and Indian fighter? I add something that you know for the benefit of other readers of these messages about Thomas Burch. Word of mouth, as for example from great grandchildren, is nothing but hearsay, a kind of 'revelation' that requires further documentation as both the writer and the the poster know and are attempting. Such information is known to be most untrustworthy although, at times, it can be proven partially or totally correct. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.