This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Curtis Devonish Cope Randolph Hunt Hurst Clarke Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/TmQ.2ACIB/1646.1.1.1.3 Message Board Post: Hi Ruth! Been awhile! The following may longer be of much interest, but perhaps someone else will read it and find it of interest. Emanuel Curtis (d. 1696) of Barbados [who married Ann Hurst and who was the father of Rebecca who married William Clark], along with his brother Nathaniel Curtis (b. prob. bef. 1656) [married Mary Cope (Copp)] and his sister Rebecca (Curtis) Devonish (b. ca. 1650- d. 1683) [wife of John Devonish] were, I believe, the children of James and Mary ______ Curtis. James Curtis was born ca. 1617 based on passenger record for his trip to Barbados (1635). I have no "hard" proof of the following, but I've speculated that James Curtis is possibly the son of Nathaniel Curtis who probably died before 1647 of Kent, England and had sons Nathaniel Curtis, Samuel Curtis, and James Curtis, and also who either had a daughter Elizabeth Curtis who married William Randolph OR James's wife Elizabeth had a second husband named Randolph and had a son William Randolph by the 2nd marriage. (The Will & Testament of William Randolph of Biddenden, Kent dated 1647 names a brother-in-law Samuel Curtis. As the term "brother-in-law" was during this period used not only to refer to brother's of one's spouse, but also was in some cases used to refer to both half-brothers and to step-brothers, respectively, I can't state for certain the exact relationship and regrettably have not investigated this further up to this point. I also don't know the relationship, if any, between these Curtises and the Curtises of Appledore. Again, I've never gotten around to following up on the matter. Also, be aware that there are two distinct major Curtis lines in Delaware in the 1600's in which the names "John" and "Richard" figure prominantly and at times the two lines can be difficult to distinguish; and if memory serves me correctly, I believe there is even an intermarriage between the two lines. Also, again going from memory, I believe I traced one of these two lines to a Curtis family group that had been in Accomack/Northampton Counties, Virginia area in the early 1600's; but I've not done active research on these lines in probably 20 years, and I can't remember which of the two lines came from there. Also, the Accomack/Northampton group of Curtis can present difficulties in researching because at some point, and forget the cutoff date, they all left the area and shortly after they left the CUSTIS family from whom the first husband of George Washington's wife Martha descended and from whom also the wife of Robert E. Lee descended, arrived in the same area. Th! e two closely similar spelled names not only have given modern researchers cause for confusion, but even the early clerks of the time had trouble separating the two and often failed to correctly spell the Custis name in some of the early records, spelling it as Curtis. With "modern day researchers" I've often found the opposite to be true in that many records pertaining to the Curtis family are recorded as "CUSTIS." <grin> The Daniel Curtis who settled in Somerset County, Maryland in the 1600's appears to be of kin to the John Curtis and Richard Curtis who were in Accomack/Northampton Co., VA too. I've seen it written that the three were brothers, but I've not seen the proof for the conclusion, but it would seem reasonable. Accomack and Northampton Counties are, by the way, on the Virginia portion of the peninsula on which is also found the "Eastern Shore of Maryland," i.e., Talbot, Queen Anne's Dorchesters, Somerset, Caroline, Kent, Wicomico and Worcester counties and a portion of Cecil County, and of course, all three of the counties of Delaware. It would also be interesting to learn if any of the New Jersey Curtises had connections to the any of the Curtis lines in either Delaware, or in Maryland as distance wise they are fairly close by. --- Jay.