Some of the off-list e-mails I've received indicate that we may be talking past each other. I mean to say that I haven't made my thoughts clear, so I have left some of you puzzled. I am trying to take a fresh look at the available information regarding the family of Thomas Payne, Jr., of Franklin Co., GA. I am grateful for the work that many of you have done. I wouldn't have known to look in Georgia had it not been for what you have put on the Payne Mailing List in past years. My search began in Bedford Co., TN, with Micajah and Margaret (Couch) Payne. Still in that county, I found Moses Payne, who I believe to have been Micajah's father. Also in that county I found Shrewsbury Payne, who I believe to have been Moses's father. From there I didn't know where to look other than Virginia, since that's all the "family lore" in my branch of the family said about the origins of Micajah's father. Now, I hope to determine whether Shrewsbury Payne was the son of Thomas Payne, Sr., and his previous wife, or of Yannaky Payne and her previous husband, or of Thomas and Yannaky Payne. So, please take no offense at my desire to take a fresh look. (If I were from Missouri, I could just say "show me." Maybe since I'm originally from Tennessee, I should say "I have to see for myself.") Here are some examples of how my fresh look leads me in a different direction from some of you: First, although Thomas Payne, Jr., said in his will that he had stepbrothers and stepsisters (as I read the phrase, "step brothers and sisters"), it seems that many (if not all) have put all the children under Thomas Payne, Sr., as the father. If he was the father of everyone, then Thomas Payne, Jr., could have had brothers, sisters, half brothers and half sisters, but no stepbrothers or stepsisters. Just to be sure, I checked my dictionary and found that stepbrother is "one's stepparent's son by a former marriage;" stepsister is "one's stepparent's daughter by a former marriage;" stepparent is "the person who has married one's parent after the death or divorce of the other parent;" half brother is "a brother through one parent only;" and half sister is "a sister through one parent only." That's from "Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language," published by William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., 1976. It seems obvious to me that, unless Thomas Payne, Jr., used the phrase "step brothers and sisters" incorrectly, there were at least two groups of siblings. One came from a previous marriage of Thomas Payne, Sr. The other came from a previous marriage of Yannaky Payne. A possible third group might be from the marriage of Thomas and Yannaky Payne: if they existed, they would probably be the half brothers and half sisters of Thomas Payne, Jr. Second, there appear to have been some Quaker records that mentioned a woman named Anica or Annica Payne, and may have mentioned the name of her husband. If those records were actually about Yannaky, and simply misspelled her name, they could provide the identity of the father of one of the groups of children. Since they could have referred to an entirely different woman whose name really was Annica, it is important to know whether the beginning "Y" in Yannaky Payne's name was dropped in any record which is undoubtedly about her. It's more than idle curiosity about that beginning "Y." If it was dropped in other records which undoubtedly referred to Yannaky Payne, its absence in the Quaker records (if they exist) wouldn't be inconsistent with other contemporary usage. It would also be important to read the rest of the related records, if there are any, to see if Annica really (or at least probably) was Yannaky. I would like to find those records and read them. Third, there is no evidence I know of yet to show when Thomas Payne, Sr., and Yannaky Payne married. Some of you seem to have concluded from an e-mail posted to the list by Elaine Paine on 10 Sep 1997 that they were married as of 1760. I believe you should take another look at what Elaine Paine wrote. She was reporting about what she found in the documents of Col. Brooke Payne at the Alderman Library at the University of Virginia. Col. Payne had drawn some charts as an aid in sorting out Paynes who had the same first names. Here's a part of what Elaine Paine wrote about the charts, with not one jot or tittle added, deleted, or changed by me (if I can do it without a typographical error slipping past me): "3 distinct Thomases: 1. Thomas with wife Yanake/Anica who first appears in Hx Co in 1760 where he, William Payne and Nathaniel Ayers laid a road. Yanake's maiden name was Ayers. Thomas moved to Wilkes Co [NC, I think, but maybe GA] in 1778. Will of Nathaniel Ayers of Halifax Co 1777 mentions Daughter Yanake Payne." Some people appear to construe that as proof that Thomas was married to Yannaky by 1760. I would sell the farm and bet it all on the proposition that the 1760 record of Thomas's role in laying a road contains no mention of his wife: neither her name nor even the fact he was married. I don't know if it was Col. Payne or Elaine Paine who chose the phrase "Thomas with wife Yanake/Anica," but it seems to me that the phrase was simply a way to identify which Thomas Payne is mentioned in that record. If, for example, Thomas had a wooden leg, and if everyone knew it, and if he was the only one with a wooden leg, the writer could identify him by saying "Thomas with a wooden leg." But he didn't (so far as I know), so the writer chose another way to identify him. If Col. Payne found no record showing the name of any other wife of Thomas Payne, Sr., that doesn't bode well for my chances of finding one; but his or Elaine Paine's use of "Thomas with wife Yanake/Anica" simply means that at some point in his research he learned of Yanake's name as a wife of Thomas Payne, Sr. There's nothing in Elaine Paine's e-mail which would indicate when that marriage took place other than the mention of the 1777 will. Her father's will means that Yannaky/Yanake/Yanoke was married to a man whose name was Payne before 1777, not necessarily Thomas Payne, Sr. Sincerely, Bob Meadows