Susan, You would probably like Vee Dove (Tull)'s book "Madison County Homes." It's a large coffee-table type book, 349 pages of photos of houses and their histories. Fascinating reading and great details. Broyles' names in the index are: Albert, Alfred, Alice Kindrick, Annie, Catherine, Ernestine R. Ayers, Ernest Wade, Frances Jenkins, Gertrude E. Carpenter, Inez B. Fincham, James Wesley, Jessie, Mildred, Rosanna, Wallace Rose, William Thomas, and Winbert Woodrow. I bought my copy from Mrs. Tull about 5 years ago. It's available in libraries in the Madison-Culpeper area, including the Germanna Visitor Center. I'm sure you know that the Broyles, Yagers, Clores, Weavers and Criglers were closely connected by marriage and lived very near each other around Criglersville. You mentioned surveys done by Geroge Washington in 1750. The 2nd Colony members began moving into what is now Madison County in the early to mid-1720s. John Blankenbaker has reproduced the D. E. Carpenter map of first patents in his newsletter "Beyond Germanna," vol. 2, #4 (July 1990), p. 97 -- as well as additional maps in vol. 9, #1, p. 477 (part of an article entitled "Early Patents in Madison Co., VA) and my personal favorite "Land Division Vicinity of Madison Co., Virginia" vol. 10, #6, p. 597. These newsletters are available on DVD from the Germanna Foundation. You would enjoy researching the Madison County Land Tax Lists, which originate at the close of the American Revolution -- in 1782, so you would start with Culpeper County in that year and go on to Madison when it was established in 1793. The good part is that In 1814 these lists begin showing the exact location of each property in number of miles and direction from Madison Courthouse, e.g., SE 10 miles, plus names of adjacent landowners. The tax lists are on microfilm at the Library of Virginia and from the LDS. I also got personal help from Dewey Lillard, who lives in Madison County and found exact sites of various Yager landholdings, using land descriptions in patents, grants and deeds that I had collected, and matching them to sites in his existing body of research. Betty ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] To: germanna colonies <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, 19 Oct 2010 17:24:57 -0000 (UTC) Subject: [GERMANNA] Original homesites of the 2nd Colony families in Zoar Hebron Valley When I attended the Germanna conference I spent some time looking at the area and settlement patterns. I returned to examine the maps I obtained in Virginia and looked at Google earth type software I have on my computer at work. Has anyone done a lot of work on this topic? It appeared to me that the families may have lived communally for the first few years in one or several hamlets, worked communally to clear the productive bottom land and put in crops then after the land was surveyed about 1750s by George Washington, moved to other homesites/hamlets in the foothills on their parcels. . My family line is Broyles which was connected to the Fleshman's which are connected to the Blankenbakers, Clores and Weavers. I focused on Weaver road which transects the old Jacob Broyles land grant. I noted a very old homesite on the left adjacent to a creek with a large older home on a hill. This is the creek on Weaver Road past Woodward Hollow Road coming from the valley . When looked at this area using my Googgle earth type software which displays aerial photography it appears that there are some very old buildings about 1/4-1/2 mile in along that creek, not visible from the road. This summer I attended a Baptist church near Creagersville and met a John Weaver and I obtained his phone number for future reference. Last Saturday I spoke to him and was told that he lived along that creek on the right side of the road as a child and frequently walked the creek. He noted a home no longer there along the right side of the road but also some very old log structures on the other side of the hill overlooking the creek. I was wondering if anyone has explored this topic and actually tried to locate the original settlements? Susan