Well, this is just my opinion...but I think to connect Coots and Coats there needs to be some analysis of the records to see if perhaps the names were used in the alternative in the same documents or documents dealing with the same person... In SC there are records that show Cote or Cotes was used as well as Coate, Coates and Coats...and we know they are the same person...so I think from that stand point you could say that Cote/Coate etc are derivitives...however, there is also a separate Cote/Cotes surname...so you really have to be careful with these...it might be that the clerk just mixed up the pronounciation...remember those southern accents...I've got cousins you'd think were from a foreign country...<g>... I think in the Archive there is a Coots land record but the signature says Coats....so just not sure at this point...plus I think there is a Coots family...so one has to be really careful when making those leaps of faith across spellings... On the land record in TN for Coots I would have picked it up as Coats and figured the clerk mispelled the name as Coots at the top...or that he spelled it Coots and then discovered the correct spelling when he got to the signature...I don't recall how the body of the deed looked.... But I think it would take some more info before you could say this was a mix up and they could have just mixed up one person not necessarily the whole family etc... But if you look at enough documents you'll see either a pattern or you'll find where the mixed up came from etc... Char Known for her over analysis of everything...<g>. ----Original Message Follows---- From: "Mary C. Sparks" <mcsparks@speedgate.net> To: COATES-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [COATES-L] John Coots Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2000 22:02:13 -0500 Not too long ago there was a discussion about the name Coot/Coots. What was the consensus? Is it a variant spelling of Coats, or is it a separate and unrelated name? While trying to find a connection between the names Coats, Holman, and Burnett, I came across the 1807 will of Isaac Holman of Rowan Co., NC. One of the witnesses was John Coot. Any opinions? Mary C. Sparks mcsparks@yahoo.com ==== COATES Mailing List ==== ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com