I'm new on this board and what I'm about to say may be old stuff to many of you. My known Hopkins ancestors obtained land in 1761 and 1762 in then Orange County via Granville Grants and later NC State grants on Deep River in the Sandy Creek Community about 6-7 miles NE of the present Asheboro, county seat of the present Randolph Co. A few years ago I saw a small map of Orange County developed in 1774 that showed 16 numbered/named districts districts of the county. Rockingham & Guilford were to west, Chatham to south, and Wake to southeast, Granville to east and the State of Virginia to the north. These districts were superimposed over outlines of the counties as they lie today. This districting was done after Guilford had been stricken off Orange, and therefore did not include the Sandy Creek community where my known ancestors lived. Properties of other Hopkins men, presumed relatives, were intersected in the drawing up of the district boundary lines included in the 1774 map, and these were in what later became Alamance County, just south of Burlington. A sheet gave the names of property holders who were intersected by the District lines for the western half of Orange Co. (Districts 1 through 8), now Alamance and Caswell. I never saw a sheet showing the boundary lines for Districts 12 through 16 in the eastern half of Orange and I wonder if such a sheet exists. The survey of the country section boundaries intersected 3 Hopkins farms with owners named, so I was able to get a general location of these earlier farms of my presumed kinsmen, located near the convergent lines where Districts 1 (St. Asaph), 2 (Chatham), 7 (Orange), and 8 (Tryon) met. Properties intersected by these survey lines in this western half of Orange county in 1774 included those of George Sharp, John Shaddy, John Hope, John Butler (plantation), John Brackin, Zache estated, William Smith, John Brackin (at Stony Creek), Reubin Washman (at Tom's Creek), John Graves, John O.Deneal, John Graves, Abraham Miles, the widow Burton, Archibald Murphy, Frederick Brook, William Meadows, Frederick Brock, Abraham Miles, Tom Graves, John Rice, John Brackin, Moses Carson, William Thomas, James Minnis, John Hopkins, Solomon Hopkins, the widow Brocks, James Wilkins, and David Hopkins. Orange Co. at that time (1774) included the modern counties of Caswell and Alamance to the west and Person, Orange and Durham to the east. The lines intersected some owners' properties more than once. Reference for this map and the list of intersected property holders: Orange Co., NC, Miscellaneous Records (# C.R. 0/3, 928.18) filed at the NC State Archives, Raleigh. Author of the article was Ransom McBride. Harold Hopkins ==== NCORANGE Mailing List ==== Larry Noah - lrnoah@bigfoot.com - Listowner - NCORANGE mailing list Orange Co, NC USGenWeb site is at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncorange