Thought this would get more response than it did. If you watched the "History of Britain" this week on the History Channel, one would wonder how any of us could track them back very far in Britain or elsewhere for that matter. I sure learned a lot about why I cannot find records in the British Islands. What with the Royals going about burning and destroying the churches and villages, as well as the Black Death Plague, I feel lucky to have found some of mine back to the 1650's, where we can prove up the connections and the villages and surnames in documents back to 1066, which gives us a background of the families villages if nothing else. Have one or more surnames that came with William the Red's men, and were granted Manors, but of course cannot make direct connections. After about 1650 for me at least, it then becomes a "History of the Surname." Sue Ellen CAVE ASH .."probably" a descendant of the following CAVE. <GRIN> In the past few years of researching the CAVE family, we have learned that our family's ancestors probably came into Virginia out of England in the late 1600's or early 1700's. We have not found the proof of our direct lineage into America. The CAVE surname dates back hundreds of years in Europe; and many researchers feel it is Scotch-Irish in origin. Others feel the name is either French or German Huguenots. Regardless of the origin of the surname CAVE, we know that there was one Wymarus deCAVE , who came into North Yorkshire, England with William the Red, as early as 1069, and was given a Manor in Yorkshire. The records show that "The Lordship of Manor deCAVE, Lord of North and South CAVE, Cliffe, Stanton, Newland, Skalley, and Manor of Waldingstone in County of Ebor," left all this property to his brother, Jordayne deCAVE, in the 7th year of the Reign of William Rufus, called William the Red. This Manor is still there today and was recently made into an upper class "Bed & Breakfast" There is a web site about it, which is very FUN to check out. Some of the CAVE descendants have gone there to spend the night. Sue Ellen "Life is what happens while you are making other plans"