Well, in Maryland it's Coarts in SC it's Coats... In Charles County MD it's Courts transcribed from what I can tell as Coates in most records... Charles Coarts was in Frederick County MD some distance from Charles County, so there may not be a connection between these two family lines...also I've added some new info to the Maryland Timeline page in the Coats Archive...it doesn't appear that Charles Coats in Charles County MD had a son named Charles...I've not checked all of them and I don't think all of the kids have been account for in this group...so maybe they wondered into Frederick County MD...but there is also quite a group of Barton's in Charles County MD...also the either the Courts or Barton's have a VA connection as well....Bartholomew Courts/Coates' son was a Thomas Courts/Coates...that website at rootsweb, has this Charles County MD Courts and Barton families pretty well covered....and well documented... Also in Charles County MD there is an early William Couts....so the name may have gotten transformed over the years from Couts to Courts...but not sure...but that Couts may also have been the first of a line from the Shetland Islands....and they branched out from Charles County MD...the Courts seemed to have land in quite a few counties on both the East and West Coasts of MD...so being a rather small state, might not be as significant as say SC or TX or WY... Sooooo, still looking....:) Char