HATCHER website: http://hatcherfamilyassn.com HALL DNA project: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~nhatcher/hall/HDNAtest.htm "If you can't stand the skeletons, stay out of the closet" - Val D Greenwood Burnis, "Are you thinking that William who married Ann Vansant had a father named William?" I'm thinking it's possible, yes. I'm thinking Wm who witnessed the 1718 will of Rakestraw was the father of Wm/Ann. I'm not seeing any clue in the Rakestraw history that tells me Wm came over here with that family as an apprentice wheelwright. It's quite possible our Wm learned his trade from his father. One other niggly is the land purchases of Joseph and Wm/Ann. Joseph bought in 1724, sold to Wm in 1726, and Wm sold it in 1728. Wm was not much over 21 and I just find it difficult to see a young man coming over here as an apprentice wheelwright and nothing else, yet earning and saving enough to purchase land without assistance from someone......like his father? "Wm and Ann may have stayed in New Jersey instead of just having gone there to get married?" I do think they came back if for no other reason than to sell the property he bought from Joseph. My thinking is that the land values in NJ may have been much cheaper than they were in the more solidly populated BucksCo (not far from Philly). He may have been able to purchase a much larger hunk of land in NJ than the 34A he owned in Bucks. There's not much you can do with 34A. Nel