Will sign in as a new member, too .... although some of us have corresponded for quite some time. I'm delighted to see this list getting started! My grandmother was Dora Bell NICHOLS, (26 Nov 1878 - 15 Apr 1939) from Greenup, daughter of Riley and Maggie BROWN NICHOLS....descendants of John Haymond and Cassandra Wilcoxin Nichols. We know now that Maggie Brown was the daughter of Alford T. and Sarah or Julie J. FANNIN BROWN, of Morgan County and that her family was predominantly Melungeon and Lumbee Indian. I'm corresponding with members of that family now. But, would very much like to reach other Nichols family members. My mother had psychogenic amnesia, and remembered almost nothing of her childhood, including any clues which might have helped link us to other living family members. We understand that several family members headed north to Michigan about the time of the Spanish American War in Cuba, and my grandmother Dora Bell traveled with them, to marry her cousin Jesse Nichols there Antrim County in 1900. The couple had two children, Emery Jackson Nichols born 1900, and Cecil John Rhodes Nichols, born 1902. We have no record of Emery except for his birthdate - he was not a member of the family by 1910. Rumors were that he died as a child in a household fire. Cecil was still with his mother when she re-married 1906 in Kanawha County, WV to E. E. PETERS and the family settled in central Washington state in late 1908. Cecil, who died in the 1960's, had always believed he was born in Jackson, Ohio - he never could get a birth certificate - but we've learned just recently that it may have been Jackson, MIchigan or Jackson, Kentucky. We know that Dora's mother, Maggie BROWN divorced Riley Nichols in Greenup and a year later, married Hiram or Henry MOORE - it appears the couple had three daughters by the time of their marriage - Maud, Nancy and Dovie May Moore. There are so many mysteries about this family, and of those few living relatives I've been able to locate, most are very unwilling to share what they know about the family. My mother, Virginia Lee PETERS (1911 - 1998), was unable to tell us anything more, and she passed away earlier this month, of acute myelogenous leukemia. Somehow, during the last few days of her life, she managed to get out of her bed and destroy what few mementos she had left of her family. She spent her entire life trying to keep her background a secret to the rest of the world, and apparently she wasn't the only one in her family. I believe that much of the secrecy and lack of communication in our family may be caused by fears of exposure of this Melungeon ancestry, but in the last few years, many researchers are bringing the whole history of the Melungeon people out into the open and those of us who are finally learning our true roots are very proud of the place the Melungeon people have in our earliest American History. It's time the rest of the world knew about this fascinating aspect of American history. I have been the editor and publisher of Nichols Nostalgia Quarterly. For a variety of reasons, the quarterly has not been published for this last year, but I'm hoping to get going again and would be delighted to hear from any NICHOLS, NICKELL, NICKLE, etc. family members, whether in my line or the other lines in the eastern Kentucky area. Jeannie Gordon Vaughan PO Box 365 Byron, CA 94514-0365 _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]