Volume II Of A Series of Early Tennessee land Records by Irene M. Griffey "John Armstrong's Entry Book" October 21, 1783 - May 25 1784 If you had relatives on the Holston River ca 1774-1783, or in the Watauga group. Lost State of Franklin.....you will want to get your hands on this one...... Thanks Mary....(and many, many others.....) THIS is why I subscribe to this list........ the sharing of resources. The 'liberal' attitude that presumes I can think for myself - Thank you! lol...... I admit to being a mostly confused middle aged woman..... born in Tennesee and raised in Michigan. I was called a 'hillbilly' most of my life and received blank stares from people when I used euphemisms in conversations... (ex: pitcher's having a bad day on the mound = 'that boy couldn't hit a mule in the butt with a bale of hay'....... but, many people didn't get it! lol) But I was keenly aware of people making fun of my Mother's pronounciation of 'weird' as a 2 syllable word.... she of course 'worshed' her hair and then, 'wrenched' it. Hers was not a strong 'voweled' southern accent..... but, noticably - NOT northern! During my childhood, we regularly 'went home' at a whim...... Daddy would come in after work on a Friday and tell Mamma..... "I'll flip ya for it - heads we go and tails we don't?" The coin would land heads and we would be headed south on I-75, from Detroit --- JUST for the weekend!!! (( I would 'lose my cookies' regularly between Jellico and Lafollette - TN\KY - going around and around those mountains --- THANK GOD FOR I-75!)) Oh yes.... Daddy's coin was "HEADS" on both sides........ and Mamma knew it <grin> Many years later, with two children of my own.... we found ourselves in Memphis after 9 yrs. of marriage........... and nearly EVERY cashier would ask "Are y'all from up north?".......... I would try to explain - but, calling Coca-cola "POP"........ seemed to contradict anything I offered ....... (( so then ---- I'm was a 'northerner'.............?)) hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm NOW....... I sit in Florida....... surrounded by more pine trees than Michigan's upper peninsula........ viewing some people with lifestyle's that rival anything I ever heard attributed to the miner's of W.Virginia or the 'frogger's' of Louisiana's Bayou.........!!!! Michigan was full of what I loved to call 'misplaced hillbillies'..... us included --- who just went north for some of that 'car money' and 'went home' on the weekends! I always thought Florida was old wealthy retirees from New York or New Jersey..... and boy, was I wrong! ANYTIME, we presume to stereotype....... we will find ourselves WRONG! I love my southern heritage...... I admire the nobility of any people, who many times are just folks of good character, doing the best they can - with what they have. And like Mary - I have had to accept that some my people were not-so-good people..... not always doing the best they should or could. However, I have learned one lesson above all the rest............ a CLOSED mind can belong to anyone - anywhere and geography hasn't a damn thing to do with it. "Stupid is as stupid does!"... - courtesy of Forrest Gump's Mamma.......... we can anyone of us, succumb. I love that I have gotten to see even just a little of the diversity this nation's people offer..... military bases certainly house a vast cross section of cultures, languages and lifestyles. The most respectful treatment I have ever received..... was when a person who had a totally diverse opinion - either one, allowed me to voice my opinion and agreed to simply disagree; or two, sited references that they felt helped to express their point of view....... and then presumed that I was intelligent enough to read it for myself! I for one would like to get back to information regarding "Southern Trails"...... of geographic migration and leave the inexhaustable conversation of 'politics', to the chat rooms. AGAIN, my Thanks to Mary and many others....... for their RESPECT in sharing their sources and references --- Connie (the following is a great little anecdote about those 'homeward' migrating hillbillies --- of which I am proud to be one! Someday I too, will get 'back home', for good! ) from Tennessee - A History by Wilma Dykeman...... speaking to their sense of 'home'................( I have a notion that this same 'sense' might well be attributed to anyone of us - who has a sense of pride or love for where ever the ground is..... we each call home.) "Tennesseans, even at their most rebellious, have tended to bear a strong allegiance to their place. Perhaps this sense was embedded early...... Their place became real, became their own. "There have been many jokes about this sense of place and Tennesseans: black and white, from mountains or lowlands, male or female, transplanted to other parts of the United States. One story familiar in Cleveland and Detroit and other northern cities, where the money-tree is reputed to grow, involves a man who died and went to heaven. All was beautiful and as he'd expected --- except for one large group of people who were chained to trees. The newcomer asked who these people were, and St. Peter replied, "Those are Tennesseans. It's Friday and we have to chain them to keep them from going back home for the weekend." I LOVE THAT STORY.........lol - Simplistic maybe....... but, to the point and probably the truth......lol!!! I know my parents 'went home' as a final resting place........ I just hope that as members of the Southern Trail group...... we can continue to share and respect one another -------- AND MAYBE get back on topic.. {one last thought...... I am always suspect whenever a discussion includes making the point that what one is doing is not 'as wrong' as someone else..... I was raised to think of that as an excuse - not an explanation!}