At 09:17 PM 6/14/2007, you wrote: >Where did we get the info that Martha (Looney?) was possibly sister of >husband Bill's Joseph Looney (who m. Coleman's sister Thena Stubblefield)? This is a question I have thought about to some extent. The genesis of calling Coleman STUBBLEFIELD's wife Martha LOONEY is not of recent origin and predates the internet by decades. In otherwords people long dead were comfortable calling her Martha LOONEY. Nor was it ever questioned by David TRIMBLE author of the book "Stroud and Stubblefield in Virginia" and he was reluctant to even accept our William, father of Coleman, was a son of Robert STUBBLEFIELD and wife Ann [WYATT?] at first. I just rechecked his book and clear as can be Martha LOONEY b. 29 Jan 1790. In fact not a single early STUBBLEFIELD researcher I am aware of had a problem with the claim. The doubting Thomas phenomenon is of recent origin. Coleman STUBBLEFIELD was administrator of the estate of Joseph LOONEY after all. The connections between the family of Joseph LOONEY and Martha wife of Coleman are not hard to believe or verify. So I think there is more reason to accept she was a LOONEY than that she was not. Was she a widow? I can't match her up. And the main problem you have with this LOONEY line is if you accept the premise that she was indeed Martha LOONEY her age nearly of necessity would make her a grand-daughter of the founders of the Southern LOONEY line, Absolum LOONEY and Margaret MOORE. The Michael LOONEY Nita FRY mentions in her post is a son of Absolum & Margaret. So if it was not Jonathan LOONEY and Jane HARBISON who were parents of Martha you have to start looking at the other brothers. Jonathan did move on to Tennessee, as did Michael LOONEY & Temperence CROSS. Martha's parents almost had to have moved from Virginia on into Tennessee as well. Tracking down the fates of the other sons of Absolum & Margaret LOONEY is about the only way to pinpoint an alternative to Jonathan LOONEY and Jane HARBISON. So I don't have answers but hopefully there is some food for thought somewhere in this post, lol. james wall