Hello Paula. Greetings from a fellow-lister, faraway in South Africa, and a real Mitchell to boot. Yes, your Mitchell's are most probably Scotch-Irish. It is quite true that there are many English Mitchell's and also a village called Mitchell in Cornwall. However, Mitchell is also a Scottish surname, and at one stage was about 20th on the list of popular occurrence in Scotland. It is found in all four provinces of Ireland, being both from a Gaelic-Catholic-"native Irish" origin (translation of O'Maolmicheille) and of an Ulster-Scot plantation origin. And many "English" Mitchell's in the 1880 UK census were actually born in (or traceable to) Ireland or Scotland. From the names James and Thomas, and being in the Alleghany area, I would think it more likely that your family has an Ulster origin. Talking Pennsylvania, a Scotch-Irish Canadian, Alexander Mitchell -- born in Nova Scotia in 1828 -- became a well-known Pennsylvanian railroad locomotive engineer. He designed the "Consolidation" to pull the heavy coal trains over the Appalachians, and died in Wilkes-Barre in 1908. His father? Dr Samuel Mitchell of Wallace, Cumberland County, NS, born in Londonderry, Ireland, and trained at Glasgow University, in Scotland. I am sending you off list an article that I wrote for my own family on Rev. James Young Mitchell of Philadelphia and Lancaster, (his father was James Mitchell of Philadelphia, born Londonderry, Ireland) and I look forward to hearing more about your quest. Sincere regards Dave Mitchell Cape Town _