Well Vergil, You hit the nail right on the head!!! They could not read or write!! A William Raines was my 2nd great grandfathers trusted and loyal friend in Randolph Co. N.C. Now who was this William Raines? He witnessed nearly every land transaction my family made until 1812. He had to be at least 21 in 1800 to put his name on anything! Nobody seems to have a William who was born before 1879 or so, but there was one there! I have a copy of every land transaction that Jacob and Henry Leonard made while living in Randolph Co. My Leonards and those R.C.N.C. Raines were TIGHT! And of course my great grandad, Henry married Patsey Raines b. 1795. I will be asking the same thing Vergil! But you know what? I can only find one set of 2nd great grands and back on my dads side. I can only find the Brewers line to take me beyond 1763. Now I can find my Brewers, buddy!! They are all out there in plain view! with Patricks, Millikins, Joyners! But my other connecting lines such as Leonard 1763, Walkers 1840, Clarks 1840 and Raines 1795 is it!! I can go no farther back! We might just as well laugh and hee haw about these Raines. We probably will never find their fathers! (Actually he is probably out there in plain view, just wrong dates are being reported which clouds up our research!) Have a good one! Mary masdal@ala.net -----Original Message----- From: baxter60@aol.com <baxter60@aol.com> To: RAINS-L@rootsweb.com <RAINS-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Thursday, April 05, 2001 12:38 AM Subject: Re: [RAINS] Hi > I believe our NC, Randolph C., Rains were A little bit retarded, none of >them knew who their father was. Well at least I had a 2nd cousin who got my >line,Lawrence, back to Randolph Co. When I see my dear old 4-ggf up above , >I am going to say" Who the h___ is your dad" O-well I can laugh abt. it >all. Vergil Raines. Baxter60@aol.com Trouble is he could not read nor >write as his X on his will proves that. I wonder how we are really suppose >to spell our name. > > > > >==== RAINS Mailing List ==== > > > >============================== >Visit Ancestry's Library - The best collection of family history >learning and how-to articles on the Internet. >http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library > >