Hi, folks. I had a couple of inquiries for more information about the statement I made that the intersection region of DE, MD, and PA was quite a small region, so I figured the best way to demonstrate that would be to show the actual miles between population centers. I used maps.yahoo to get the distances listed below. First, I picked three or four population centers that were major in each of the three states. All of the MD locations are in Cecil Co., MD; all of the DE locations are in New Castle Co., DE. The three PA locations are in Chester Co. (West Chester), Delaware Co. (Chester), and Philadelphia Co., (Philadelphia) North East, MD, to Elkton, MD, is 7.2 mi. North East, MD, to Rising Sun, MD, is 9.5 mi. Rising Sun, MD, to Elkton, MD, is 15.1 mi. Newark, DE, to Wilmington, DE, is 16.9 mi. Newark, DE, to New Castle, DE, is 11.7 mi. New Castle, DE, to Wilmington, DE, is 6.5 mi. Chester, PA, to West Chester, PA, is 17.8 mi. Chester, PA, to Philadelphia, PA, is 15.6 mi. West Chester, PA, to Philadelphia, PA is 35.5 mi. Now for the cross-state miles: North East, MD, to Newark, DE, is 15.6 mi. North East, MD, to Wilmington, DE, is 28 mi. North East, MD, to New Castle, DE, is 22.8 mi. North East, MD, to West Chester, PA, is 43.4 mi. North East, MD, to Chester, PA, is 41.5 mi. North East, MD, to Philadelphia, PA, is 56.1 mi. Elkton, MD, to Newark, DE, is 7.8 mi. Elkton, MD, to Wilmington, DE, is 20.4 mi. Elkton, MD, to New Castle, DE, is 16 mi. Elkton, MD, to West Chester, PA, is 35.8 mi. Elkton, MD, to Chester, PA, is 34 mi. Elkton, MD, to Philadelphia, PA, is 48.5 mi. Rising Sun, MD, to Newark, DE, is 17.1 mi. Rising Sun, MD, to Wilmington, DE, is 32.8 mi. Rising Sun, MD, to New Castle, DE, is 29.5 mi. Rising Sun, MD, to West Chester, PA, is 35 mi. Rising Sun, MD, to Chester, PA, is 47 mi. Rising Sun, MD, to Philadelphia, PA, is 63.5 mi. Newark, DE, to Philadelphia, PA, is 45 mi. Newark, DE, to Chester, PA, is 30.5 mi. Newark, DE to West Chester, PA, is 27.8 mi. Wilmington, DE, to Philadelphia, PA, is 29. 5 mi. Wilmington, DE, to Chester, PA, is 14.4 mi. Wilmington, DE, to West Chester, PA, is 16.3 mi. New Castle, DE, to Philadelphia, PA, is 35.3 mi. New Castle, DE, to Chester, PA, is 20.8 mi. New Castle, DE, to West Chester, PA, is 24.5 mi. Okay, there are probably some combination of the 3 cities in 3 states that I left out, but you get the idea. The longest distance is 63 miles and most are a lot shorter! If your family lived in one of those areas, it would certainly not have been a stretch for them to have moved to another. ______________________________ And because the question that prompted me to suggest that PA, MD, and DE ancestors might have moved easily across those state lines and not have traveled far started with a discussion about the location of the Nottingham Meeting (Quaker), I decided to look to see if there were adjacent Nottinghams in MD and PA. There aren't today. But there are a number of Nottinghams in both states (not to mention a couple of DE places named Nottingham). In fact, there are two Nottinghams in PA -- one is near Philadelphia and one is near the MD line very close to Sylmar, PA, AND very close to Sylmar, MD. Also, there are two Nottinghams in MD, one in Baltimore Co. and one in Anne Arundel Co. I have not been able to get Yahoo to go from one Nottingham, PA, to the other Nottingham, PA, nor from one Nottingham, MD, to the other. I think I could if I had their zip codes, but I'm not obsessed enough to start that search!! In case you are interested, Yahoo Maps states that Nottingham, MD (and I don't know which one it is using) to Nottingham, PA (the one close to Philadelphia) is 107.9. When you are thinking in terms of how close one community is to another for our ancestors to have made a move, even at the turn of the last century, even this move is not all that far. A final note: If there was a Nottingham Meeting move, it seems to me that the move (assuming the community it existed in shared its name) would have more likely been between the Nottingham, PA, that is near the MD line and only a sneeze away from Sylmar, PA, (which I can't get Yahoo Maps to locate on its mileage locator) and West Nottingham, MD, which is only 6.1 miles from Sylmar, PA. Perhaps Nottingham near the MD line and West Nottingham in MD were the two communities that were associated with the Nottingham Meeting??? (In which case, the meeting moved, not the state line!) Karen