Sandie I'll take a stab at this. I just went through the Appendix to Carleton E. Sanford's "Thomas Sanford the Emigrant" in which he lists data about "other" pioneer Sanfords (other than Thomas) including his brothers who emigrated, plus several others of this surname totally unrelated to Thomas and his brothers. On p.1335 (vol. 2) CES covers Thomas' brother Robert and lists his wife only as Ann. He further notes that James Savage lists her as the daughter of Jeremy Adams, thus she would be Ann Adams. But CES further notes that "recent research" (which would have been c. 1900) by A. D. Hodges Jr. disagrees with Savage. However, nothing CES quotes of Hodges conclusions clarifies who else Robert's wife might have been. I find it hard to go against Savage's conclusions since his work really is the first methodical genealogical info on the first settlers in the Mass Bay Colony and he was working with original source documents. The subject Robert clearly settled in Hartford and, according to CES, died there. I scanned his children's listings and most of them who migrated only went across the Sound to Long Island, which in the beginning was administratively part of the Hartford Colony. None of Robert's children appear to have migrated to Virginia. There are several other possibilities covered in the CES Appendix worth looking at. While he lists no other "pioneer" named Robert San(d)ford, he does list several of other pioneers who had sons named Robert. For example, on p. 1394 pioneer Richard Sanford, and on p. 1398 Nathaniel Sanford, both had sons named Robert. It may be worth mentioning that the Index to CES's book lists ONLY descendants of Thomas. None of the Pioneers (or their descendants) in the Appendix are listed in the book's index. However, the Appendix sections are relatively short and easily scanned if you are looking for a specific name. Another more promising clue I found in the CES Appendix was on p. 1398 under Pioneer Nathaniel Sanford. Under him CES lists a number of "others" who may/may not have been offspring of Nathaniel. Note Vincent Sanford, at the bottom of the page, who "Was Clerk of Lancaster County, Va., in 1652, showing plainly that a Pioneer Sanford or Sanfords had settled there and probably prior to this time. The name [Sanford] often appears in the records of Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond, and Westmoreland Counties, and among the best families." CES cites several of these people, then concludes, "There are a great many Sanfords in the Southern States, nearly all of whom sprung from the Virginia Pioneers." This is the best "pointer" to the Southern Sanford's I can recall seeing in CES. [I'm not so sure about his phrase "and probably prior to this time" since, if Vincent was Clerk in 1652, and likely at least 22 years old to hold the job, he would have been born in 1630 or before -- too early to have been anything but an emigrant himself.] I am so focused on the Pilgrim Colony (1620) and the Mass Bay Colony (1630) that I personally have not really looked into other colonization in America that followed. But I am pretty sure that by 1640 many vessels were sailing from England directly to ports other than Boston (New Amsterdam/ New York for example) and most likely other places down the coast. I think I'd establish the history side of this first, then try to find records of the first settlers of the ports/colonies south of New York. I do know that Gov. Winthrop and his company had land grants in Virginia but, through a navigation error, they wound up in Mass Bay. Thus his Virginia Grant was up for grabs and it seems likely there were many who quickly (mid to late 1630s on) headed for the Virginia Grant. I'd bet Vincent Sanford, if not the principal ancestor of the Southern Sanford lines, was at least one of them. Steve Sanford [email protected]