Dear Washington County/South County RI friends: ..."Everybody knows, and nobody says" (An old South County saying I grew up hearing...and so we were taught...not to ask!) ...My own version: "Everybody thinks they know, and nobody's checked it out for at least 40 years..." ...Take for example this list...in the past three years, it has broadened considerably what I thought I knew about South County families....and I am grateful for the expanded perception I've been gaining, of a place I deeply love... ...Now I'm focusing on a new saying... ..."Nobody knows everything, but everybody knows something..." ...For example, I feel that by now, (for obvious reasons), I have a pretty solid, yet broad-based global "handle" on the history and local legends surrounding my Brownings and Tuckers....and through them, a little bit on maternal line Whaleys, Congdons, Larkins, Tuckers, Crosses, Greenes, Halls, Clark(e)s, Ste(a)dmans, Gard(i)ners, Greenes, North(r)ups, Kenyons, Georges, Burdicks, Barbers, Hulings, Hox(s)ies, Roses, etc.etc.etc., but...there must be dozens of areas where what I know would help others, and where what others know would help me and everyone else understand the whole of South County history much better than we do... What I'm asking is, is it appropriate to ask if listusers would volunteer to post a bibliography of book sources and web sources for stories, legends, biographical information on their own local surnames? Would it also be appropriate if each of us were to "hit the high points" historically, on the South County surnames we do follow, posting abbreviated bio info of historical importance? For example, I'm simply fascinated by my Whal(l)ey cousins' connection to the mysterious Judge Whal(l)ey, one of the high court judges under Cromwell who helped condemn King Charles I to death...then after the Restoration, hid over half of New England until finally settling down to his final hiding place in the Narragansett Country somewhere next to where the Glebe was, and where the Gilbert Stuart Birthplace is now... As some of you know, I'm also fascinated by the famous Gard(i)ner line matriarch, the notorious Herodias Long-Hicks-Gardiner-Porter, (sometime) common-law wife to George1 Gardiner...and...thanks to the Tefft Association, I know about fifth-great-uncle Joshua Tefft, the only New Englander/South Countyite ever....drawn and quartered for high treason (eaugh!)...and I ask myself: I descend from ten or so generations of locals, yet I have only heard many of these stories in the past three years, and almost always from internet sources such as this list! So...how many other South County stories of family deeds and adventures are there out there which I've not yet heard about...which many/most of you may not yet have heard about as well? It's just a thought...but what do you all think about sharing these things? Appreciatively, as always, Barry Hale Browning