One of the major problems since my second surgery that caused me to drop out of the hunt for the past was that my memory, both short and long term was shot to all heck. Now, the long term memory has mostly returned and the short term is getting much better. That I confused Edward with John in my last post is just an example. I will have to do a lot of review to get back to where I was two or three years ago. Before I signed off, several thoughts were going through my mind. One is that we are all mostly. maybe 99 percent, from the line that descends from Edward through Samuel on down through William Hitchock etc. We are a large family with a much larger unknown out there, possibly. We just don;t have, or didn't have two years ago, information on the other posible lines, if they exist. Given the sickness and wars, there may be not much to be found. One olf the things we had always done, is assume that Edward descends from John and Dorothy. Makes sense, but unless one of you has found something in the past wo years, there is a generation missing to establish that this is indeed the same line. On the other side of the pond, in I think the IGI, there is a reference to a marriage between a John Talby and a Dorothy. But the dates cause problems in showing that this could be the same John and Dorothy in Salem. I spent some time at the Royal Geneology Society Library in London and got nowhere except the idea that I had to go to Liverpool and not London to continue the search. My surgeries derailed that idea, but who knows? There are books that state that Edward's wife was a Gasoway. this has been shown not to be correct in subsequent pubs. So we still have a great mystery. Some of us enjoy solving mysteries and one of us may just do it someday. I met many great people on this list. In searching for Taulbee descends I found a cousin alll my aunts were sure was long dead. All kinds of surprises. I also found a line with several generations of altzheimer's among the male descendents. Kind of scary, but perhaps a reason to spend time at this search. I found brilliant memberts of the family as well as scoundrals, Johnny Rebs and Billy Yanks. My 2great grandfather and grandmother wandered al throughout the west before settling in Wisconsin. My Aunt has a quilt made by my 2great grandmother about the time just before of after the Civil War from wool she had raised, spun, and dyed from roots she sug. I am in line for that quilt since I am the only one in her close family researching the family past. It is wonderful to talk to someone who knew these people, even if four score years ago. Unless one of you has discovered something in the past two years, there is no information on the European origin of the family and just how they got here. John and Dorothy are not listed among the Mayflower passengers, so they came a few years later, but still in the eary days, probably helped establish the Bay Colony rather than Plymouth. But just where did they come from? The spelling of Taulbee is strictly American in origin, The same individual has been listed as Talby, Tolby, Talbee, Taulbee, Talybey, etc. All pronunced the same way. Not surprising gin the history of illitercy in the eary US. In England, I was told by an English genealogist tthat Talby and Dalby were phonetic equivelants in the 17th century, and there are lots of Dalbys listed in England. Kind of like trying to trace Jones (which we have to do in one of the Talby wife's lines) or Smith. Anyway, we know the name was in England in the 17th century. We know that some Tolby came from Ireland in the early 19th century and then disapeared. We know really nothing else. The specualtion in Rose's book, which draws greatly on a letter from Judge Taulbee of Texas, placing the name as descending from Norman French or German is without foundation unless something else can be found. So we are stuck. But that is what always made this fun for me. Somewhere, somethng must exist (The bloody British couldn't have destroyed everything when they burned Washington) to make a likely connection. We don't have to trace the line back to Adam in the Garden, but it would be nice to know what we were in the ancient world, just so we could see how much we have changed. Anyway, I met a lot of wonderful friends in this research, and maybe some of you will not have forgotten me. Any of you are welcome to contact me at 623-214-1931. It is kind of cool today, only supposed to reach 103, so maybe I will get some work done outside. Talk to you again.