to all, As many of you know most families in NORTH CAROLINA can trace several of their families to NANSEMOND county, VIRGINIA. It has been a real problem gathering info. on the families of NANSEMOND county because of so many records destroyed, however there are many that have survived since then. One real help to researchers in this area are the records of the surrounding counties, SOUTHAMPTON & ISLE OF WIGHT counties, VIRGINIA & CHOWAN, GATES, HERTFORD, NORTHAMPTON & BERTIE counties, NORTH CAROLINA. What many researchers don't know is that the families that lived near the border of NORTH CAROLINA in VIRGINIA ARE the same families listed in the records of BERTIE, CHOWAN, NORTHAMPTON counties but especially in GATES & HERTFORD counties, these are the SAME families. I just typed and sent a lot to the RAWLS, BERTIE list and will now send a lot to the BERTIE, HERTFORD 7 RAWLS list pertaing to the RAWLS & associated families. many of the records from HERTFORD county are long and full of names so I will have to "cut out" a lot of info. the records were destroyed for much of HERTFORD but what was left was extremely helpful and pertain directly to the families of BERTIE county as well more later BOBBY RAWLS BIG SPRING, TEXAS