There were many Copelands that died and left estates in NC, and yes, many of them moved on to different states. The possible one who freed John Copeland about 1815, is very sketchy, and has only been referred to in articles written about the family, from what I have seen. Again, I don't even know if his father/master was even surnamed Copeland, that may have been an assumption from the fact that was his surname. Another researcher I came across some months ago, who also is a descendant of John Copeland, also has not found anything to indicate who was John's father/slaveowner. It makes me wonder if the story of his parentage was even true. The fact of the matter is that there was a small contingent of Free Colored Copelands living in Wake County during the 1800's, and that most of them seem to have been from the same family. I don't know if that is the family to which you are referring when you say you wonder if they are connected to your husband's family. However I'm not familiar with any Iredell County families, however, your mention of a Hugh Copeland in your family does make me recall an exchange I came across a couple of years ago with another Copeland researcher, on the Ancestry/Rootsweb Copeland Message Board. It is a bit further back in time than what you are looking for, but there just may be a clue for you. Here is a portion of what she said: James died in Chowan, March 13, 1753 and willed to his son, James, "the tract of land on Chowan River. William died in Chowan, Jan. 26, 1763, and mention his wife, Sarah, two sons, William and Jesse, and one dau., Ann Judith. William's branch producted, Hugh Copeland, CHARLES COPELAND, Alexander Copeland, and Isaac Copeland. Each of whom received large grants in Craven and (Greenville?hard to make out.) Counties SC. The entire message is archived at the Copeland Message Board: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/message/an/surnames.copeland/1224.1.1.2 Deloris ----- Original Message ----- From: <AlviCpl@aol.com> To: <COPELAND-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, December 04, 2005 7:47 PM Subject: Re: [COPELAND] Re: Copeland Families of Warren & Halifax Counties, NC > The Copeland that was freed in 1815 interests me. My husband's line of > Copelands left North Carolina right after that time for Indiana. I don't > have > the name of their father, but I had thought that maybe they left after > the > settlement of an estate. My husbands ancestor was living in Iredell > County, NC > and his widowed sister was living next door, James Copeland and Elizabeth > Abbott. I believe they had a brother named Hugh, who also headed for > Indiana. > Elizabeth did not go to Indiana with them, I didn't track her. Miles, > Rufus, > Evan, and Jacob were also family names. >

By the way, many of the Chatham County wills are available online at the USGenweb/Rootsweb Chatham County Website. Here is the link to the page: http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncchatha/court.htm Click onto the "Extracted Documents" section near the bottom, using the alphabetic list of wills to read them since those links do work. There are a few Copelands of interest. There are also other online documents on the site, some of which the links don't seem to work. But here is the link to their Indexes which do work, I would advise anyone doing research of Copelands in NC to check it out if you haven't done so yet, since there is lots of material here on Taxes, Wills, Census, Court Records, Bastardy Bonds, etc.: http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncchatha Deloris ----- Original Message ----- From: "Deloris Williams" <delwilliams@insightbb.com> To: <COPELAND-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 1:33 AM Subject: [COPELAND] Re: Copeland Families from NC to Indiana & beyond > There were many Copelands that died and left estates in NC, and yes, many > of them moved on to different states. The possible one who freed John > Copeland about 1815, is very sketchy, and has only been referred to in > articles written about the family, from what I have seen. Again, I don't > even know if his father/master was even surnamed Copeland, that may have > been an assumption from the fact that was his surname.