Cliff and Bonnie, You are both far beyond me in the ability to express your points of view, but I sure enjoyed reading both your messages. I go a lot on intuition and circumstantial evidence. (And once again--I reiterat--nobility doesn't mean a whit to me--the only reason I would want to have a royal line (proved) is that the genealogy would already be done. I think there is probably some truth that Posey was a French or Belgian name. The Posey family and the Belaine family were very close in Maryland and possibly had connections in England and prior to that in France. So far there is so little information available on the Belaine name. It seemed to disappear early. I have searched under many different spellings and have found very little on the name. We do know there were Poseys who were members of the Threadneedle church in London. Don't know about Belaine. My Posey connection is through Edward Philpott, II and Susannah Posey, dtr of John. Edward II's father was married to a Bridget/Brigette 'unknown'. Supposedly Edward I is descended from John Philpott, Lord Mayor London in the 1300's, but there are a couple of generations with missing information way back in the 1400's. Also, we assume Edward I was the immigrant ancestor, and maybe the son/grandson of Henry Philpott of Folkestone, Kent, but no proof there either. Maybe someday we'll find the answers. Shirley