With considerable help from several people, particularly Susan Chance-Rainwater, here is the second take on the Miles Rainwaters of the world. I am restricting the list to people born before 1900. There are four people born around 1800 who named sons Miles Rainwater: Miles Rainwater (1787-1826), James Rainwater the blacksmith, James Rainwater the preacher, and William Rainwater (1774-1825). Admitting the unlikelihood that both Jameses had the same father, I separated out the preacher in my first list. Dan Bruce, however, thinks, with some reason, that the preacher, rather than the blacksmith, was the brother of the first Miles. I still think the reverse, particularly because Miles's estate contained some unusual blacksmith-related items for a preacher to have (Miles also was a minister, and James the preacher followed him in his church). Another reason is that the church records say that Miles was followed in the church by his cousin, not his brother. However, the same records gave Miles the wrong wife, so what can we believe? My biggest error in the first list was trying to make William (1774-1825) the brother of Miles and of James the blacksmith, by hoping that his birth year of 1774 was in error. The reason for trying to make them siblings is that it would be nice if all the Miles Rainwaters descended from James Rainwater (c.1770-c.1835) and his wife Nancy Miles (c.1775-c.1847), as Nancy's last name appears to be the ultimate source of this first name. There were NO people named Miles in the Rainwater family prior to the marriage of James with Nancy Miles. However, I already had Zebulon Miles Rainwater, son of James the preacher, left over, so that design was flawed from the start. William Rainwater, as it turns out, is the son of James and Catherine Anne (Regan) Rainwater and presumably the brother of James (husband of Nancy Miles). At worst, one line of Mileses was named after an uncle-nephew relationship rather than father-son. Consequently, in this second take I am giving separate numbers to each of these four Miles progenitors. Their sons would be designated by a number and a letter (1a), the next generation by a number, a letter, and a number (1a1), and so on. There are three isolated Miles Rainwaters. (1) Robert-William-James-Milas W. (1816-1895)-Miles Murphey. It is clear that this Miles drew his name from his father Milas and presumably had nothing to do with the Nancy Miles source. I am not sure of the accuracy of this line back to Robert. (2) Robert-John-John-John-William-Wilkes Berrywine-Miles Avery (1864-1925). This man occurs later, and the source of his name may be from distant cousins and ultimately Nancy Miles, or from an entirely unrelated source. Again, he does not seem to have relevance to the Nancy Miles source. (3) The Stewart Co., TN, census of 1860 lists a John H. Rainwater (b. NC c. 1804), wife Frances (Bird), and son Miles Rainwater (b. c. 1846). I do not yet know where these people fit in, but it is possible that they are descendants of one of the four progenitors. Here then are the four men and their Miles descendants. I include everyone with the name Miles. Men with other names are included when that had a descendant named Miles. Again, I solicit comments, corrections, and additions. 1. Miles Rainwater (1787-1826) m. Nancy Edwards (1788-1855) 1a. Miles Rainwater (1815-1890) m. Sarah Edwards 1b. Silas Mercer Rainwater (1825-1902) m. Mary Jane Hindman 1b1. Miles Rainwater (1857-1911) m. Sarah Frances Allen 2. James Rainwater the blacksmith ( - ) m. Apposley Cunningham 2a. Miles Rainwater (1816- ) m. 2a1. Miles M. Rainwter (1858- ) m. 2b. Eber Rainwater ( - ) m. 2b1. James Daniel Rainwater ( - ) m. 2b1a. Miles Frank Rainwater (1894- ) m. 3. William Rainwater (1774-1825) m. Martha Hodges 3a. Miles Rainwater (1818-1884) m. Frances Chaney 3b. William Howard Rainwater (1813-c.1889) m. Minerva Ann Rayeborn 3b1. John Raleigh Rainwater (1841-c.1910) m. (1) Genetta Thomas, (2) Rhoda Ann Cole 3b1a. Miles Eber Rainwater (1863-1941) m. Laura Almina Frazier 3b2. Miles Rainwater (1843-1927) m. (1) Permelia Emily Cain, (2) Elizabeth Warner 3c. Bartholomew Rainwater (1894-1889) m. Nancy McLaughlin 3c1. Miles Rainwater (1836-c.1914) m. Cornelia E. 3c2. Josiah Wilson Rainwater (1843-1934) m. Elizabeth Jane Weddle 3c2a. Miles Rainwater (1876-1956) m. Ollie Frances Cooper 4. James Rainwater the preacher ( - ) m. 4a. Zebulon Miles Rainwater (c.1823- ) m. One interesting point is the presence of the name Eber in the lines of both James the blacksmith (his son 2b. Eber) and William (his great-grandson 3b1a. Miles Ever). Does anyone know where this unusual name comes from? Joseph B. Lambert Department of Chemistry Northwestern University 2145 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208-3113 Telephone 847-491-5437 Fax 847-491-7713 E-mail lambert@casbah.acns.nwu.edu or jlambert@nwu.edu Webpage http://www.chem.nwu.edu/~lambert/ (best with Netscape 3.0 or higher)