Hello, List, I can't let an earlier message go by without some comment. Some of the statements are made very sweet and faithful to earlier researchers. But, if you really want to be a genealogist, you should look at the records yourself and judge, especially if the research was done many years ago. Don't just accept work done 50 years ago. Many new records are now available that were difficult to obtain or which were not in print at that time. Here are some comments: > > >The Mims' supported the Stuart line in England and their name disappeared with Sir John in England, and on or about this tiime we have the record of their appearance in America. >>> AKB: What reference or source supports this statement?? >>>Thomas Mims, born before 1623 in England, died Feb.1693-4 in Virginia, Middlesex County. His known children were Elizabeth, Thomas Jr., Sarah, Lionel, and wife, Melly Ann Martin." (From a paper read by Miss Anne Mae Mims of Augusta, Georgia, before the Edgefield (S.C.) Historical Society at the annual meeting June, 29, 1951; as quoted from the chapter, Mims, The Family in Virginia, Family Record, written by Clara Mims Wright Forrest and her mother, Anne Mims Wright, of Jackson Mississippi).>>> AKB: Without references and sources, a talk that someone made at a Society meeting 50 years ago is NOT sufficient evidence. AKB: The Thomas "Mims" of Middlesex Co VA is actually Thomas Minns. EVERY record that he left in Middlesex for over 20 years gives his name as MINNS. Different clerks of the court recorded his name consistently as Minns. The Middlesex Court records even clearly indentify his surviving children as John, Elizabeth (died young), another Elizabeth (who lived to marry), and Thomas. See the following for a narrative with references and sources: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=ann_blomquist&id= I15044 > > >"The earliest appearance of the name in any of it's variants on the extant record of Virginia is in 1623, when it appears that Thomas Mimes was living in Flower de Hundred, a settlement on the south side of the James River which...>>> (From Family Record, written by Clara Mims Wright Forrest and her mother, Anne Mims Wright, of Jackson Mississippi). > > > >List of the Living and the Dead in Virginia, 1623; and Register of Land Office, Patent Book No. 5, p. 124; all of the items in this email were listed - including the references cited in Family Record, written by Clara Mims Wright Forrest and her mother, Anne Mims Wright, of Jackson Mississippi).>>> AKB: There is NO Thomas Mims, Mins, or any other spelling in the 1624/1625 Muster taken after the Indian massacre of 1622. Flowerdieu Hundred is NOT named in that muster. Flowerdieu was called Peirsey's Hundred (various spellings). Reference: Virginia Meyer and John F. Dorman, Adventurers of Purse and Person, 1987. The entire muster is listed on pages 7-71. I checked every Thomas in the list (there are lots!), but no surname comes close to Mims. > > >"On February 3, 1662, Thomas Mimes was granted 800 acres of land in James City County, Virginia, on the branches of the Chickahominy, adjoining Thomas Meredith, and George Smith, Richmond Terrell, and Edmund Price..." (From > > >Senate Document - extra- Colonial Records of Virginia, Richmond, 1874, p. 40. AKB: This is correct with the following references: Nugent, Vol 1, 465; Patent Bk 5, 218. > > >As you may know, Anne Mims Wright was an exhaustive researcher who did most of her early research in churches, court houses and state buildings around 1900-1910. Col. Merritt in his address to the Edgefield Historical Society refers to a Mims Book that she wrote and was not published. > > > AKB: This is very nice and complimentary, but much sincere genealogy work done in the early 1900s was romanticized and does not stand up to modern examination. If it is good quality work, then modern double-checked sources will support it. But early work should not be accepted on face value. > > >Anyone that does not have a copy of Col. Merritt's address should obtai n a copy, it's very detailed and interesting. > > AKB: Where is this document and how can it be obtained? Here is my narrative of Thomas Mims: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=ann_blomquist&id= I32686 I would appreciate any corrections. Ann Blomquist Orlando, FL