I haven't posted for a while, but since there seem to be some new folks who haven't been able to link their familes to Ralph, Nicholas and Robert I thought I'd pitch in. "Pyle" can be both English and German. There were many German familes of the surname "Pfeil" who immigrated to Pennsylvania and other colonies in the 18th century. Within a generation or so, their surname had been whittled down to "Peil", "Phile", "Pile" or "Pyle". Several of these German descended Pile and Pyle familes removed to the south after the Revolution. A Coonrod Pile (Conrad Pfeil) was an early settler of East Tennessee as was a George Pile (Georg Pfeil). The transformation of "Pfeil" to "Pyle" in America is so common that standard works on German and Palatine genealogy list "Pyle" as an alternate version of "Pfeil". I say all this just to advise those who have been thwarted in their efforts to hook their lines to English families to keep open minds and pursue other dirrections. My family is listed as a "broken line" in the back of the big blue Pyle book. I have since been able to connect the Sullivan County, Tennessee Pyle family with Daniel Pfeil, a Hessian immigrant of 1754. Charles Pyle Richmond, VA