Doug, Don't expect to find too many documents on our Sasser family dated before the 1800's. And especially don't expect to find anything "saying that they had moved from Maryland to North Carolina". Folks in the 1730's and 1740's couldn't run down to Walmart and buy a pack of paper just so they could write down some history to leave to posterity. In fact, in that age, you could travel 200 miles or more across the South without finding a single piece of paper. Paper was very rare and very valuable--it had to be imported all the way from England. And why would anyone need it besides a public official--no one could read and write anyway! There were no "public" schools; only a very few private academies in the larger towns. In fact, public schools did not become well-established in most Southern states until the late 1800's. You could write tons of books today about why there is such a scarcity of records which have been preserved. I have already written tons of letters to cousins who can't understand why they can't find birth or death certificates from the 1920's. You first have to have some idea of what life was like in pioneer days to understand why don't have more records from that period. As for speculation, what we DO know is that our Sasser family was in Somerset County, Maryland in 1724. This fact is from a 1724 tax list: this tax list included Benjamin, Thomas and William. Sasser's remained there when our ancestors moved on south into the new (and better) lands in North Carolina. They can still be found in Somerset County on the first US census of 1790 and still later. The fact also remains that the Sasser family name can be found in ENGLAND since the 1500's when "family" (or surnames) names came into general use among commoners. They can be found in several English counties but were concentrated in southeastern England. There is also the fact that JOHN SASSER came to the colonies in 1742 from ESSEX County, England aboard the English ship "Jubilee. I do not know whether he had made a trip to England or whether he was a new immigrant. In any event, Sasser's were already in North Carolina by this time. All this bit about our family being from Germany reminds me a lot of having to spend so much time dispelling the tales of a "Cherokee Indian princess and an Irishman" ancestors among literally thousands of Southern families. If we need documents for proof, then we SHOULD be concerned with about the supposed German origin is that BEFORE we can accept this, there must be a legimitate document showing they came from Germany. So far, I don't know of any document showing our Sasser ancestors came from Germany. If there is no public document showing a German origin, let's forget it and get on with research on our REAL origins. More later on the origins of our family if anyone wants to hear about this. Robert Earl Woodham Columbus, Georgia ------------------------------