In a message dated 6/14/00 10:27:47 AM Central Daylight Time, vsummers@nrao.edu writes: << Can anyone tell me if there was something in particular that might have encourage someone from Virginia, around 1840 or so, to migrate specifically to St. Mary's? Or at least specifically to Hancock County? >> Vince, I was touring an old mansion in the Finger Lakes region of New York last fall and was given a reason why people left Virginia to settle there. It seems that the soil had been depleted in Virginia due to what we would consider poor farming practices. They, of course did not know what good practices were. Since the soil became poorer, they simply left and moved to areas where rich soil existed. I don't know if this was the reason why your people moved but it is a possibility. Dennis Lietz