This is an important and interesting question and would take lots of time looking at census lists from many states. One significant fact is that there never was a Miles Rainwater before Nancy Miles married James Rainwater and had Miles the preacher (1787-1826). I do not know if all Miles Rainwaters are descendants of this couple, but it is possible. Are there an Mileses in the line of James the blacksmith? That would provide another piece of evidence that he was the son of James and Nancy and brother of Miles. Re Viney, there is a Virginia/West Virginia Viney family, and the name was used as a female first name. It goes back to Andrew and Susannah Viney in the early 18th century. It is an unusual name and hence easy to trace. Joseph B. Lambert At 10:42 PM 2/1/99 -0500, BCTone@aol.com wrote: >With all the talk on Viney, Vina, et. al., I was wondering if anyone had ever >figured how many Miles Rainwaters there were? It seems that every Rainwater >family had at least one. > >Paula >BCTone@aol.com > > >==== RAINWATER Mailing List ==== >This list is not for political discussions and seasonal >greetings. Please keep messages oriented toward >genealogy. Listowner is: schimmel@northlink.com > 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)