There's a pretty good chance that one of the grandmothers of Roger Mackerness Williams of Brunswick Co VA had the maiden name Goode. The first-name Mackerness got attached to the Goode family before they even moved to VA in the latter 17th century. John Goode (b. 1632 in Whitby, Yorkshire, England) emigrated to Barbados, where he married Frances Martha Mackerness (b. 1624 in St. Michaels Parish, Barbados, West Indies). Their son Samuel liked his mother's surname, set up a trend after heading for Henrico Co VA. I don't know the date on that, because I don't have access to the VA land patent records before 1696, when Samuel Goode was already there. His eldest son Mackerness Goode was born 1691 in Henrico Co VA. After which, every Goode generation for a couple of centuries seemed to find it necessary to name a son Mackerness (not always one-per-son, but pretty close). That first Mackerness Goode (or a same-named son or nephew) moved to Brunswick Co VA in 1747. Two--or, more likely, three--of the Mackerness Goodes appeared in SC with land petitions in 1767-71. Different petition-dates, grant-sizes, and non-adjoining locations often imply different people, but don't guarantee that. Anyway, men with all the same first names as those of the sons named in the 1735 VA will of Samuel Goode turned up together in SC land petitions dated 1767-71. Most of the grants were on Beaverdam Creek of the Little River (northern tributary of the Saluda) in a Laurens Co SC location. One early one was on the Little Saluda River in (later) Edgefield District, where a respectable showing of men named Mackerness Goode turned up a decade later. Some can be connected to family-groups via wills, deeds, etc., others can't. I have enjoyed collecting "spelling variants" in the colonial SC records, ever since I noticed the two dozen ways in which Gallman got spelled and the three dozen ways in which Geiger got written down (not merely transcribed) in the 18th century. A Soundex search-option will cover most, but not all, of those. No surprise about the extreme variations in the spelling of German or French names. (Dutch Fork settler Michael Bedenbaugh got written-down as Pitebog.) But surely there would be fewer choices for the Olde Englishe surnames? Nope. If you're doing a Google-search on colonial records for Mackerness, you may need to try these options--and these are merely the ones I've seen documented for somebody who was definitely/positively a member of the Goode family of Henrico Co VA, Brunswick/Lunenberg Co VA, and Laurens/Edgefield Co SC: Macherus, Machones, Machonnes, Magnes, Magness, Macherness, Mackennes, Mackerness, Mackness, McNees, McNess, Mackachones, Mackeneese, Mackenes, Mackenness, Mackones, McKaness, McKenzie, McKerness. This message isn't of much use for people looking for family-connections between Brunswick Co VA and Edgefield Co SC (of which there were many), but might be entertaining for those of us who have often wondered "how do I spell that?" when trying to look up records for the 17th-19th centuries. Answer: any-way-at-all. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Catherine Cooper" <catcoop@bellsouth.net> To: "Harriet Imrey" <himrey@ntelos.net>; <VHULL@aol.com>; <scedgefi@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 2:22 PM Subject: Re: [SCEDGEFI] Mackerness Minter Harriet and others, Do any of you know how the Mackerness family ties into these folks? Harriet mentions Mackerness Minter in the e-mail below. I am trying to determine how Roger Mackerness Williams of Edgefield received his middle name. His father was Luke Williams who died in VA. Roger married Catherine Quarles in Brunswick Co., VA in 1785 before they migrated to Edgefield. Roger died in Edgefield. I have tried to find some connection between the Williams and Mackerness families but have found nothing. Any help is greatly appreciated! Catherine