Hey, everybody (and Valerie :-). This is Judy Kilgore in Newnan (GA) and I do a weekly genealogy column for The Citizen, a newspaper in Fayetteville. Hope this is not too confusing, but I am doing a series on the Tidwell (and Westmoreland) families who married into the Boyds of Meriwether, Pike, Carroll and Fayette counties. Previously, I did a series on the families buried at Bethany UMC in Fayette County which included some of the Hunts and Rivers presently being discussed. When I pulled up William Judkins Rivers on my database (didn't have a wife or children for him), I discovered he was the son of Dr. John Rivers and Sarah (Sally) Hunt, as was related in a previous message. I have John Rivers as the son of Thomas Rivers and Mary Jones, and Sarah Hunt as the daughter of Judkins Hunt Sr. and Martha Batte. Most of this lineage information came from Mary Harper who has been researching these families for a number of years. Here's the interesting part. In the current Tidwell-Westmoreland series (most info taken from "McCall-Tidwell and Allied Families" by Ettie Tidwell McCall), I am doing the ancestors of Milly Tidwell Boyd, who was the daughter of William Tidwell and Mary Amelia Jones. This week, I did Mary Amelia Jones' ancestry (she is descended from Captain Richard Jones of Virginia) and it included many members of the Batte family of Virginia. Also, now I'm curious as to whether Mary Amelia Jones was related to the Mary Jones who married Thomas Rivers. Mrs. McCall did a lot of genealogy on the female lines of these families, something you don't normally get. If any of these early Virginia lines would help anyone, I would be happy to share what Mrs. McCall has in her book. It may not be 100 percent correct, but it would at least give people a direction to follow. It was written in 1931. Some of the Virginia and other early families included are Tidwell, Westmoreland, Simmons, de Graffenried (which I am aware has been disputed), Tscharner, Needham, Baker, Chancy, Jones, Stratton, Shippey, Batte, Chamberlayne, Rust and Metcalfe. She also has quite a bit on her husband's McCall line. Those of you who have subscriptions to Ancestry's Local and Family Histories database can find Mrs. McCall's book there. The columns I did on the families at Bethany have been temporarily taken offline while we re-do our Web site, but I have most of them on my home computer and will be happy to send them to you privately. I started the Bethany series of columns last February (2005) and they ran through the summer (Harper, Rivers, Lester, Boyds, and related families). I have done a list of the titles (in MS Word) of all the columns by date since 2001 if anyone would like this. Some columns are missing from my home computer (three or four) since I did a have a couple of computer breakdowns over the past five years. The back columns should be available online in the future, but I don't know when that will be. The columns presently online begin with last October. The Tidwell-Westmoreland series began several weeks ago. You may view them at www.thecitizen.com. The genealogy link is down on the left side of the home page. Also, I have a Turrentine connected to my Boyds in Meriwether --- David Boyd, son of Robert Boyd and Rosannah Stewart (of Newberry Co., SC) married Elizabeth Turrentine in 1834 in Pike County. I believe she was the daughter of Samuel Turrentine and a Clower. Would appreciate any background information on the Turrentines and the Clowers. These Rivers, Hunts, etc. were in the First District of Pike County, and my Boyds and the Boyds buried at Bethany were in the Upper Ninth District of Meriwether. The two districts are adjacent to each other, and are very near the First District of Coweta (where Haralson and Senoia are located) and the Western part of Spalding and southern tip of Fayette. Hope this opens some doors for someone. Judy