This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: BLACKSHEAR ,GILL, WELCH, MERRITT, HAVEN Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/5R.2ADI/955.1 Message Board Post: One of my 3-great grandmothers was named Abigail Blackshear Gill Welch Merritt. She died at something like 100 years of age and as buried at Bethel United Methodist Church at Reno, Grady County, Georgia, as Abigail Merritt, wife of Parson (Richard) Jonathan Merritt. She was from North Carolina, possibly Robeson County, as was her husband (my 3-great grandfather) Richard Welch. So far as I know, they lived most of their adult lives in Thomas County, Georgia, where there were quite a few Blackshears among the early settlers. However, I have no idea whether Blackshear was her maiden name and she had also previously married a Gill, or what. I have suspicions that somewhere among the Welches there was Indian ancestry but I have no specific information other than a Confederate enrollment record showing one of her sons to be rather dark, and a photo of her daughter who was my 2-great grandmother, Martha Ann Welch Haven. You can see her photo at: http://pone.com/ts/rw001.htm ! If you right-click on the photo and choose "view image" a larger version of her photo should appear. In the unlikely event that anyone can place Abigail amongst the Blackshears, I would love to hear about it... <G>