Hi folks, the New River website has moved to http://www.newrivernotes.com/nrv.htm It includes detailed history of this area and its hardy band of first settlers, clickable county maps, and endless amounts of info. For example this article. http://www.newrivernotes.com/nrv/Paula_Anderson-Green.htm THis article quotes another, describing key characteristics of frontier settlement to people like ourselves who are trying to trace their origins: "The method of migration and settlement in the South was fairly uniform during the pioneer period. Friends and relatives living in the same or neighboring communities formed one or more parties and moved out together, and when they had reached the promised land they constituted a new community, which was called a "settlement" -- and still is so called. Settlements were frequently miles apart, and the inhabitants of a single settlement would be more scattered than they had been in the old community in the East; and other settlers would come in after the first trek in smaller groups or in single families and fill in the interstices. These later comers would often be relatives ' or friends of those who had come first, or friends of their friends.27 " The article tells us that "Many of the earliest settlers were of Quaker background, from such heavily Quaker areas as Loudoun County, Virginia; Chester County, Pennsylvania; and Burlington County, New Jersey. A Quaker meeting was established in the New River border frontier section by Friends from New Jersey about 1785." IN addition "Although a majority of the settlers on the northwest Carolina frontier were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians or German Lutherans, a significant number were of English or Welsh origin and of Quaker or Baptist persuasion. The importance of this group on the frontier was considerable, for most of the sheriffs, clerks of the court, lawyers, and justices of the peace were of Quaker or Baptist origin.51 As we have seen, the majority of the New River settlers came from New Jersey or Pennsylvania, where many of them were closely associated before they moved. Tolles has shown that the Delaware River Valley, including both its New Jersey and Pennsylvania sides, was a "single economic province and…a single cultural area."55 Records of Quaker meetings indicate that the population on both sides of the Delaware were in constant touch with each other. Similarly, the Presbyterian churches provided opportunity such interchange of visits and, in particular, drew together colonists of various backgrounds: New England Puritans, who were part of the "spill over" into New Jersey, newly arrived Scotch-Irish, and a few French Huguenots. In their pre-Appalachian days many New River families were located in the New Jersey counties of Essex and Burlington, and in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, and adjoining Delaware Valley counties. As the westward movement developed, these same families mo! ved by stag through the Susquehanna and Cumberland valleys into the Shenandoah. Their close-knit relationships must have been a significant element that sustained them on the frontier." Yet so many people only search in PA and never look in NJ or Maryland for their ancestors!! Not so smart.....I've found a lot of PA families in MD records. Linda Merle ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net