In a message dated 9/15/05 8:37:20 AM, dotsicle5@sbcglobal.net writes: > JAMES COPELAND was born in 1742 in Virginia and was > the last son born to NICHOLAS COPELAND and wife NANCY > LOTT. He was born in the year of his father's death. > His father was a surveyor and was killed before > providing his survey to the court in regards to a > legal battle over some contested land. It was at this > time that the Copelands and children appear in North > Carolina. > I remember now we discussed this before. I have a different Nicholas Copeland who died in 1742 and was surveyor. He was married to Dorothy Ripley. There is a land deed in 1725 with Dorothy clearly named as his wife. The land he was selling he inherited from his grandfather, Nicholas Copeland, who died in 1721. Land deeds verify this. I have James as his son who married Lydia Dill. Nicholas was in several court documents along with a William Copeland, who was probably his brother. This would account for the William in the record of "James' uncle William Copeland". My best assumption as to why there are two different family lines for Nicholas, assuming we are dealing with the same person, is that Dorothy may have died and he married a second time to Nancy Lott. Does anyone have any legal record of a Nicholas Copeland married to Nancy? The pedigree in the DNA project that has Nicholas Copeland who married Nancy Lott as a descendant of Joseph Copeland of Isle of Wight is a DNA match to Reuben Copeland in the DNA project, who is a descendant of Nicholas Copeland of Old Rappahannock and Essex Co., and of Nicholas Copeland and Dorothy Ripley. This DNA match could be accounted for if the pedigree back to Joseph Copeland is incorrect, or that both families of Copeland descend from a common ancestor. I don't care which one of these is correct, but it would be very helpful to know if all these Copelands were descended from a common ancestor in England as it might help lead to the early ancestry of both John Copeland of Isle of Wight and Nicholas Copeland of Essex Co. To determine this, we would need a direct male descendant of another son of John Copeland and Sarah Ratcliff of Isle of Wight to participate in the DNA testing. I don't know if his son William has descendants. Maybe someone else does know. When Thomas Taberer made his will in 1693 he only names one grandson with the Copeland name, his grandson Joseph Copeland who was named executor of his will. So I am assuming that Joseph did not have male siblings living at that time. William Copeland of the Mary and Grace saga, also needs a descendant to be tested in the DNA project to fill in the other missing link. I don't see a pedigree that goes back to him and I wonder if there are male descendants who would be willing to participate in the DNA testing. Cheers, Barbara Good