Bill Massey of TN wrote: >> If we take William W.'s book to be gospel, he traces our Richard1 back to Edward III who can in turn be traced back to W the C, right? Just wondered if there was something I was missing here.<< Bill has a good point! I thought about this consideration after I pushed "send" on my post. I just haven't gotten into the habit of publically presenting "our" Edward iii/William the Conqueror/Clarlemagne descent. Well known medieval genealogist Paul Reed made a reasonable and convincing case for showing that (i) Richard(1) of Charles City Co, VA is a son of Edward Massey and Alice Brathwayt of Puddington, Co. Chester, England whose ancestry has been traced to Hamon de Masci and Edward iii (and from Edward iii to John i, William the Conqueror, Charlemagne, etc.). . MASSEY-L contributor, William W. Massey has presented all this along with proof that that (ii) brothers Hezekiah(2) [Bill's ancestor], Joseph(3), and Richard(2) [my ancestor] are sons of Richard (1) in his MASSEY GENEALOGY 2000. All Masseys descended from Hezekiah, Joseph, and Richard and other interested Massey researchers should familiarize themselves with these accounts. Although, Mssrs. Massey and Reed make a reasonable and convincing case for points (i) and (ii) above, these points have not been rigorously and completely documented . In the case of my wife's descent from William the C. that I mentioned in my post, we can prove her descent from gateway ancestor Thomas Owsley i of Stafford Co., VA, and, we can document his descent from Edward i on back. [Thomas Owsley's decent from Edward iii looks good but has been challenged by some.] Regards to all, Theron Smith.