I have received a lot of e-mail saying thank you for the history of Bristol and my bits and pieces. I am really glad you like them and find them useful. Please, no need for thanks! This was the only way I could think of to repay and thank all of you list people. Every one of you have bent over backwards to help me every time I beg for family lookups and I always get my questions answered (even the dumb ones). I have learned a lot of history and found a lot of cousins and ancestors through these list. It is I who owes the thank you, and needs to contribute in some way. Each and every one of you I appreciate and respect greatly. When you tire of the history yell at me enough, OK? I really love doing it and I am starting to type a little faster (LOL) . Here is a start of Virginians Go west which I found interesting: Most of the land between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean belonged to Va. under the charter their King had given them. Virginians were interested in the land west but did not move beyond Tidewater during the 1st hundred years of the colony. In 1700 all the settlements were within a line drawn from the modern Suffolk westward to present day Petersburg, then northward to present day Richmond, Fredricksburg, & Aquia Creek. The reasons no one had gone westward before 1700 was: ( 1.) every farmer wanted land which touched Chesapeake Bay or the rivers that ran into it. There were not many good roads so waterways were used to take goods to market. (2) farmers had built comfortable homes and prosperous farms in Tidewater. (3) they could go safely from one settlement to another in boats, (4) Tidewater still at that time was not populated enough to feel overcrowded, ( They should see it now,LOL) , and (5) the main reason was they knew on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge were the Iroquois Indians, they feared no settelers home would be safe from these Indians. Will continue later. Thank you all again and God Bless one and all.