Volks, My dau. and I had a wonder drive today thru the mountains of southern WV. The area was the counties of McDowell and Wyoming. That is coal country. Very moutainous with few four lane roads. Many small villages with unique names. I can't get a true feel of the ethic origins. There are no Germans there. I think they are Welsh or Northern English. Some Scot-Irish but I do not think they are predominate. There are more Catholic churches than you would expect. That is from the Italians and Poles brought in at the turn of the 20th century to mine coal. There is a mix of Methodist, Baptist, Free Will and Regular, and Holiness. I did not see the large number of Primative and Missionary Baptist that I saw west of this area in E. KY. I did not get to see many surnames. There were Blankenship aplenty. Like I said, no German names. Here are some of the towns: Bluefield Keystone (anyone grow up hearing stories of wild Keystone?) Superior Welch Vivian North Fork Maybuery (This spelling is a clue, but I do not it. Welsh? N. England?) Coalwood Caretta Yukon War English Bartley Raysal Bradshaw Jolo Avondale Iaedale (can anyone phonetically spell this pronounciation? ) Ikes Fork Hanover (pure English) Baileyville Lilly Haven Oceana (Nice place but that name in WV? ) Jesse Steeles Pineville New Richmond (old English) Herndon Covel Matoaka (is this the place of the movie? ) Lashmeet Kegley (the only name that might be German) -eddie