Cousins, I received a nice letter from a lady named Martha in Vienna, WV who descends from Henry Spence who married Eleanor Mabry in 1845 in Carroll County. She thinks that her Henry descended from Burwell, and I'm inclined to agree. I have asked about this Henry before and no one seems to know who he was. In the 1840 census his father in law, Isaac Mabry is living next door to Uriah Spence. Seems logical that Isaac and Uriah's children would marry, right ? Well, from what I have seen Uriah had a son named John Henry Spence who married Susannah Spence and then died in CSA. Uriah had to sell some land that belonged to John Henry, and this sale of land is in a file at the courthouse. According to Martha, the tradition is that Henry didn't come home for supper one night in 1860 and who knows where he went ........ Henry & Eleanor ( Ellen, Nelly) had 2 sons, William and Jacob, who both grew up, married and have descendants today of which Martha is one. William & Jacob were both born in Carroll County. They and their mother later moved to Floyd County, VA. By the way, Floyd County is ONE of the remaining places on earth that still have their 1890, yes that's right, the 1890 census, that happened to survive the 1921 fire at the Nat. Arch. ! Jacob Spence lived with the Harris family in 1860 at the age of 10. He married in 1868. William was born just before his Dad Henry evaporated, ca. 1859. William took care of his mother all her life, and finally married after 50 years of age. He had a son named Jacob..... We had a lady looking for a Jacob Spence a while back. I must find her addy and see if this matches in time frame. Also this Henry Spence, the supper no show, bought 53 acres of land on Bear Creek from Lewis & Frances Spence in 1843, before he married Eleanor. So he was up on the Buffalo. Mary Anne, have you ever seen the file on the sale of land by Uriah that John P. Alderman speaks about in the "Settlements" ? Will you ask Essie if she ever reviewed it ? Maybe we should look into this mystery....... I would like to be able to help Martha, as she is elderly and doesn't have internet. She has worked on this for so long..... Later, Carolyn