Bette, I got the envelope today ! THANK YOU. THANK YOU ! I'm like a kid at Christmas ! I'm going to work on transcribing everything that you haven't. I picked some new info out of some of the descendancy reports that I didn't know. I started writing this as a personal note, and then got so carried away, I am sending it to the other cousins also. Maybe we can generate some discussion on some of this . I agree with you about the Puckett's. There was also a Drury Puckett in Russell Co. VA that I think was in this bunch somewhere. My best guess is that Rebecca was a daughter of Thomas Puckett and sister to John Puckett who married Martha. Speaking of Martha, some say she was a Spence and some say she was a Hensley. Here's the jest of it. A man in FL who descends from Martha, has a paper written by his great Aunt that said that Martha was born in 1771 in Bedford Co. VA and she was Burwell's younger sister. She married John Puckett in NC, probably as a 2nd husband. It is thought her full name was Martha Virginia Spence, or Virginia Martha Spence. I recently met a descendant of Lucy Spence McGrady, who has the family tradition that Lucy was Burwell's niece. Lucy's husband Mr. William McGrady did not die. He simply disappeared (abandoned ?) . Then Lucy came to Carroll Co in the 1830's. There were the 4 children that John P. Alderman knew about that he wrote about in the 1850 census. So anyway, the marriage license of Virginia McGrady, aka Janie, who married Isaac Mabry in 1848, lists her mother as Lucy Spence. Now this is still in the theory stage, but if Lucy Spence McGrady was Burwell's niece, and she named her daughter Virginia after her mother, maybe the mother was in fact Virginia Martha Spence Hensley Puckett.... Where John Alderman thought that Lucy Spence McGrady was Burwell's sister, he could have been mistaken in that Lucy was the daughter of Burwell's sister, not in fact Burwell's sister.... Lucy was born abt. 1790, which puts 27 years in between Burwell and Lucy. A reasonable range, BUT I think that Burwell was a younger child of his parents, not an older child. It is more reasonable to think, in my way of thinking that Lucy Spence McGrady came to Carroll Co. VA from Ashe Co. NC, not to be near her brother, but her MOTHER. As to why & when John & Martha Puckett came to Carroll Co., I think it was about the same time that Burwell & Rebecca came from Ashe Co., so that leads me to think that John Puckett and Rebecca were brother & sister. That's my best guess. Puckett is the hardest line I have ever tried to wade through ! Those of you working on it know what I mean. We have the line all around us, and our Pucketts are the ones that no mention is made of. ( Black sheeps ? ) They were in Grayson Co. VA just after it was established, and also at the bottom of the mountain in Surry and Ashe NC. but we can't find our place within the family. Which leads me to another question . If Rebecca Puckett Spence was a daughter of Thomas Puckett and Burwell Spence was a son of Thomas Spence, then why did they not name a son Thomas ? Or did they ? Seems I saw a Thomas Spence in the old Grayson census somewhere ? Thomas Puckett had a son Isom ( Isham) Puckett, and Thomas Puckett's father was Ishom Puckett. Perfect naming pattern there. Burwell and Rebecca's first known son was also Isham aka Isom, Ishom. Let me hear from the other cousins... IS YOUR Puckett research on this same idea ? This comes from my inquiring mind ( what little I still possess ) that Burwell had 2 daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. Let's hope one was named for Burwell's mother and one for Rebecca's mother. So which was which ? I thought that I had somewhere that Thomas Puckett's wife was named Elizabeth, but can't find it at this minute. If the above holds true, then Burwell's mother was a Mary. That's why this Thomas & Mary Green(e) Spence are so critical ! Where, oh where, are Thomas & Mary Spence ??? Until later, Carolyn