Howdy ya'll, I spent yesterday gleaning the FHL films I ordered: 1. Murphy Family Papers (Richard of Surry Co.) 2. Surry Co., VA Deeds, wills, inventories, etc., 1645-1686 Though interesting, they turned up very little on Murphy lines, in my opinion. The family papers were just a typed collection of someone's ideas on Richard, most could have been tradition or fable, absolutely no sources or references listed, some transcriptions of descendent documents, fairly disappointing. The Surry book was exciting, though straining to the eyes. It also contained some extraneous court records. I found no Murphy (or variation thereof), but the following information may be helpful to some on the lists I'm emailing herein. Whereas I have heretofore been unable to locate copies of original documents, mentions of hereditiments and appurtences were contained viz \to wit\ No William Bird mentioned (I'm not familiar with his timeline; who was his father?) No Murphy mentioned up through 1686. No Bird mentioned 1648-1677. Jno. Bird, 14 Sep 1677, appointed his wife An. Bird atturn? exc. Jno. Vincent Will, 6 May 1679 Thomas Bird bought land from Thos. Busby, 4 Sep 1680 Jno. Vinson bought cow & calf, 10 Jun 1681. Also listed here as Jno. Vincent. River Jordan, Thomas Crews & William Crews, tythables list, 10 Jun 1683 Thomas & Phebe Crews. Also, for you Franklin Co. folks, notice a lot of the same surnames here as there. Robert Ruffin, Nicholas Perry, Robert House, Jno. Battle, Wm. Upchurch for Mich. Upchurch. Also a couple of names for my Funny list: Eliza Blow and Law Chickin. ---- Hey John Goebel, I lost your email. What do you think about Bird? (not Chickin) -- Mark A. Murphy http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~freshnup/markmurph/