Hi List, There have been several recent postings about migrations from Maryland. One not mentioned as far as I know, is that a group of Catholic families left Maryland after the Revolutionary War and established the first Catholic community in the state of Georgia. As near as I can tell this was not motivated primarily by an interest in obtaining land, although several of the people concerned were war vets who had received land grants for their service in the War. Rather, they were encouraged by Bishop John Carroll, who, in Baltimore, had become the first Catholic bishop in the United States. He wanted to help spread Catholicism from Maryland to other states in the new nation. I believe this also helped motivate the migration of Catholic families out of Maryland to Kentucky about the same time. Some of the families involved in the Georgia migration were Thompsons, Semmes, Cratins, Lucketts, Lanhams, etc. One of the leaders of this group was my ggg grandfather, Joseph Thompson, who with his (second) wife, Elizabeth Middleton and all his children joined the trek. Later, many members of these families migrated further west to Alabama and some even made it to Texas eventually. I have visited a lot of the Georgia sites and a few years ago wrote up a history of it for my children. If any of you would find this to be of interest, I would be glad to share it with you. Cheers, Pete -- Peter T. Thompson White Horse Village email: [email protected] 535 Gradyville Road Department of Chemistry Newtown Square, PA Swarthmore College 19073 Swarthmore, PA 19081-1390 phone: 610-558-2167 fax: 610-328-7355