PAMUNKEY DAVENPORTS & OTHERS INTERESTED: If you have come to the conclusion that publication of the "The Further Chronicles of the Pamunkey Davenports" is never going to happen, be of good cheer. We are in the concluding phases of the project, and are presently in the final stages of editing of Part 1, "Beginnings and North of the James River," and are completing the research needed to conclude Part 2, "South of the James River." Parts 3 and 4, minor compared to Parts 1 and 2, will likely be ready before Part 2. Our comprehensive research has been enhanced by the professional editing of Dr. Judy Russell, who has, the truth be told, made life complicated if not frustrating at times for the Old Doc. Research meticulousness has been sharpened by editing meticulousness. Judy has questioned sources, demanded clarifications, spotted inconsistencies, and challenged analyses in addition to performing the mundane tasks of editing for spelling, grammar, syntax, and style. Being a lawyer and legal scholar, she has also straightened out Doc's analyses where he has ventured into interpreting Colonial Law. Between Doc's research and Judy's editing, the Chronicles should be a substantial, valid resource for future Pamunkey Davenport family searchers. A Baker offshoot from the Pamunkey Davenports, Judy has verified that the Thomas Baker, long identified as the husband of Dorothy Davenport, daughter of Martin, Sr., eldest son of Davis, was not the Pennsylvanian claimed by earlier Baker researchers-- a story that Judy can develop in her own good time. We are still in a quandary as to how we will make the Chronicles available. The decision is not one of generating book sales, but one of family history sensitivity, for the final file will contain the family warts as well as the family achievements. The presence of Slavery is massive, particularly in Part 2, "South of James River," where our Davenports became wealthy prime movers in their counties and were slaveholders of note. Most of the litigation among our Davenports post-Revolution in Virginia was Slavery related. All of these court items are in the Chronicles. None of those litigations can be cast in a favorable light in these days of social enlightenment, particularly the whippings and hangings. We would note also that a number of illegitimate Davenports are identified and many long circulated Davenport portrayals and claims have been clarified, found to be spurious, and/or recast into portrayals that are closer to what the records say. The Chronicles project, we believe, has doubled the size of the family, at least, and has found most of the long missing or long ignored Pamunkey Davenports in Colonial and Post-Revolution Virginia and beyond. The Pamunkey Davenport story is worthy of a major film production, replete with characters of heroic proportions, particularly in the Revolution and the War of 1812, but given the Slavery involvement is unlikely to happen. From apparently illegitimate beginnings in an Indian Reservation in the Seventeenth Century we have evolved to likely the largest family of Davenports in the United States--who have no DNA connection to the bonafide Davenports of English Ancestry. Shortly hereafter, for your titillation, I will relate the story of the two wills of Thomas Davenport, Sr., of Cumberland, likely third son of Davis Davenport, our patriarch. Thomas, Sr., had eight sons and one daughter and was married, circumstantial evidence strongly indicates, to Grace Terry. There are a great many Pamunkey Davenports who have Terry blood, but that doesn't enter in to the Two Wills of Thomas, Sr., except for the Terry given female name of Drusilla and how she tried to slip a will into probate when her brother Thomas, Jr., was a presiding judge of Cumberland Court. Really dumb from an intelligence perspective, and was another Slavery involvement. John Scott Davenport Holmdel, NJ