Hi. There is an interesting thread on GEN-NEWBIE-L about this. To sum it up [as best I understand it] GTE filed something with the FCC that will let them collect fees from other phone companies who use their lines for internet traffic, blah, blah - no per minute charge to the individual customer [us]. I suspect we'll get the increase one way or another, don't you? Also, GTE and Pacbell are limiting their customers' internet time to 100 and 150 hours with a $1 per hour over the limit. Think *that* won't spread????? Here is a post to GEN-NEWBIE from Ken Tucker that makes sense: " I have yet to see a company in a public service business who does not want their custoners to remain with them , ie, buying their product, etc. How many of us have just stepped into the shower, sat down to a meal, been occupied with our daily routine and the phone rings.. It's At&T, MCI, GTE, Sprint, or any number of long distance carriers trying to sell their service.. Competition Is fierce ! Trust me Folks, A Well written letter, courteously stated but laced with acid, explaining that you will nether use their product, or recomend it to your friends will get their attention. They need you ! Explaining clearly that their policy to charge you extra for internet service has turned you to their competition will make them ( blink first ) ..." I think a deluge of mail to these people may make them think a little more on this. If you would like to see the CNN story, go to http://cnnfn.com/hotstories/washun Sara >Help! Is this true? Are we in danger? I'm on at least 30 lists and will send >this to each if this is confirmed as a danger. And if it is as serious as it >sounds, can someone suggest addresses to post along with the warning? Like, >yikes!!!! >Cyndi

Please people don't panic. The real scoop on this story was sent to the Southside Va. rootsweb.com today. I'm a member of that list but I just zapped that email out of my computer so I can't send it to you. Maybe you could have the owner of the Bedford list contact the owner of the Southside Va. list and get a copy forwarded to you. I have no idea how a thing like that would work, but am sure it is possible. What it boils down to is that nothing will happen about charging people every time a connection is made to the internet. Seems there is a law against treating the internet like a phone system. Good luck, Lois Smith

Help! Is this true? Are we in danger? I'm on at least 30 lists and will send this to each if this is confirmed as a danger. And if it is as serious as it sounds, can someone suggest addresses to post along with the warning? Like, yikes!!!! Cyndi

-----Original Message----- From: Shirley Ashley [mailto:shirla@vsta.com] Sent: Saturday, November 07, 1998 4:05 AM To: LANATCHI-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [LANATCHI-L] Fw: We Need Action ---------- > From: ImaBR@aol.com > To: EAST-TEXAS-ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: We Need Action > Date: Friday, November 06, 1998 10:11 AM > > Hi All, please pardon this type of post, but I have just heard on CNN where > the FCC will make a decision in TWO weeks if to allow a CHARGE equal to a long > distant charge to be charged EACH time you logged on the Internet, I know for > one this will be the end of my computer genealogy. Please write your > congressman. > > Gladys >

I'm the host of the QueryPage at URL: http://people.delphi.com/fspradlin/bedf-qry.htm Queries posted this past week mentioned the following surnames: BARKER, NORTH, OVERSTREET, SAY, WALKER I'm not a researcher of these names, so PLEASE don't write me with questions about them ... ;) Regards, Freddie S. fspradlin@delphi.com 3448 W. 170th St., Torrance, CA 90504-2402

Hi Listers, The Roanoke Historical Society publishes a terrific historical map of Bedford Co, showing old churches, settlements and early homesteads.These churches are identified as before 1830: Beaverdam Baptist, 1803.. Bethlehem Baptist, 1824..Rocky Mt Tpk Chapel, 1783..Blackwater Rd Goose Creek Baptist, 1771 Lower Meeting House, 1757..Difficult Cr Mt Hermon Baptist, 1787..Sycamore Cr Old Pisgah Church, 1815..Little Otter Riv Quaker Baptist, 1775..Rocky Mt Tpk St Stephen's Episcopal, 1825..Boonsboro Salem Methodist, 1824..Wheat Valley Rd Staunton Baptist, 1790..Blackwater Rd Suck Spring Baptist, 1805 Trinity Prot Episcopal, 1824..Boonsboro Wilson's Methodist, 1794..Difficult Cr There are other churches on the map, but without dates. Happy hunting. Barbara Virginia Connections http://expage.com/page/eakley

I have appreciated all the responses I have received to my query about who John Ayres was and his relationship to Bedford County. I have found a great deal of interest in him from those who have responded. Perhaps it would be interesting to those who have marriages in their family histories to know more about him. I like to have information like this for it makes my ancestral families much more real to me. I think it would be interesting for those who have information about "Marrying" John Ayres to post it to the Bedford Co. GenWeb page. I am also appreciating the discussion of the church history of the county. So informative! Thank you. Marilyn Garrison

Hi, I've read a brief comment recently that indicated a large number of Irish immigrants came into Bedford Co. to work on the Lynchburg canel. Does anyone know anything about this? Thanks. Sally Kasey E. KASEY/CASEY SHAON CANADA/CANNADAY/KENNEDY STRATTON HAYNES HAMPTON

` I've been trying for a long time to figure out if there were `established churches in Bedford and if so, what were they called. If `anyone finds the answer to this puzzle, be sure to post. ====================== In _Parker's History of Bedford County, Virginia_, by Lula Jeter Parker, [see Hamilton's (book store); P.O. Box932; Bedford, VA 24523-0932 http://peterv.com] there's one chapter on "Churches of Bedford County" In it she says the parish of the Church of England for Bedford was named, like the county, for John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford ... Russell Parish ... The first vestry was appointed 24 May 1755 composed of William Callaway, John Phelps, William Mead, Mathew Talbot, Jr., Joseph Ray, Robit Baber, Henry Tate, Benj. Henslee, Francis Callaway, Charles Talbot, Mark Cole, and Charles Ewing, Gent. The first minister "of whom there is any record" was Rev. John Brander. John Callaway, son of William, donated land for an Episcopal church, in New London. The church was built, but the Episcopalians could not pay for it, so sometime later, they agreed to share the building with the Presbyterians. The building was later sold to the Masons for a lodge hall. She says the Russell Parish Register is now [pre 1954] the property of the Trinity Church which she places at Boonsboro. She mentions the building of St. Stephens Church [Protestant Episcopal] on the old Tabernacle road, near what is now Forest. She mentions that in 1828, Rev. Mr. Cobbs preached in the Mason's lodge on East Main Street in Liberty, and in the Courthouse. About 1836, St. Thomas's Church [Episcopalian] was build on the north side of the county. St. John's Church in Liberty was consecrated 1847. Sometime after 1859 and before 1871. St. Mark's church was founded at Bufordsville, now Montvale. Christ's Church, near Timber Ridge, was build between 1871 and 1878. The Presbyterians erected the Academy Church between 1858 and 1860, across the road from the New London Academy. White Church or Miss Betsy Read's Church was at Ivy Creek, and there was a congregation at Spring Hill which merged with the Academy Church in 1888. Pisgah Church, 7 miles east of Liberty, might be older than Academy, but the records were not preserved. It was at least as old as 1843. The Presbyterians had an interest in Mt. Olivet on the south side of the county, and Salem on the north side. There was also Peaks Church near Moseley's Bridge, a contemporary of Pisgah. After 1881 when Old Peaks Church burned, the New Bethel Church changed its name to Peaks. Laurel Grove Church was organized in 1861. Liberty Presbyterian Church was built about 1844. The Baptist churches include Goose Creek Church with the first meeting of the Strawberry Association in 1782, and Hatcher's Meeting House, where the association met in 1791. Morgan's Church (originally called Goose Creek) is the oldest Baptist church in the county, but Jointee, a union church near Goodview, was established as early. Another early church was Staunton, orginized in the late 18th century, on the south side of the county. Little Otter Church was organized in 1785, but no mention of a building is made until 1804, the members meeting in their homes or the courthouse. Beaver Dam Church near Chamblissburg, was established in 1803. Jointee, united with Beaver Dam in 1849, to build a new brick church, called by the Methodists, "New Hope". Suck Spring Church, near Peaksville, was organized in 1805. Timber Ridge Church was also organized in 1805, and Big Island Church was organized in 1886, by a committee from the churches of Hunting Creek and Chestnut Hill. Mount Hermon Church is an outgrowth of Hatcher's Meeting House. Mount Zion Church near Montvale, was deeded its building in 1825. Mount Olivet, another union church, was originally used by Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians ... but the latter two sects died out or moved away, so the church was left to the Baptists and Methodists. Francis Asbury was apparently the first Methodist preacher in Bedford Co, visiting and preaching as early as 1788, and his journal mentions preaching in 1790 in the Courthouse, and in 1794 in Wilson's Chapel. The minutes of the Quarterly Conferences lists "societies" on the Bedford Circuit as: Liberty, Mt. Zion, Union, Jointee, Olive Branch, Emmaus, Bethleham, Antioch, Providence, Leftwich's, Wilson's, Calvary, Ebenezer, Nazareth, Bethal, Salem, Wilkeson's, Thomas' Chapel, Smyrna, Kabler's, and Cross Roads. The first [Methodist] church building in Liberty was built in 1838, which is now [1954] St. Phillip's (colored) Episcopal Church. Union, the oldest church on the Montvale Circuit, was organized in 1830. Prior to 1899 there was no organization of the Christian Church in Bedford County. The Church of the Brethren (Dunkard) was organized in Bedford Co, shortly after 1865. St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, was begun in 1874, with the arrival in Liberty of Father McGurk of Lynchburg, to conduct the first Mass ever offered, and the donation of the land by P. McCrossin. Regards, Freddie S. fspradlin@delphi.com 3448 W. 170th St., Torrance, CA 90504-2402

Sara, Thanks for the reply. So there should be some kind of Church of England church records for Bedford, shouldn't there? My experience has been that you have to have a "name of the church" before anyone will talk about looking for records. Kay

Hi Kay, In the colonial, pre-Rev. time, the Anglican [Church of England] was the established religion and was supported by public taxes enacted on everyone, even if they preferred another church, and public officials made sure they were collected. I think this is the basis for the separation of church and state in the Constitution. There were other churches, such as Presbyterian, Congregationalists, Quakers, etc., but, I think, they were called non-conformists. Perhaps someone else has a clearer answer. Sara >I've been trying for a long time to figure out if there were established >churches in Bedford and if so, what were they called. If anyone finds the >answer to this puzzle, be sure to post. > >Kay

Hello, Does anyone know if their is a list of existing churches in Bedford County between 1795 and 1810? Thanks, Bill Hobbs

I've been trying for a long time to figure out if there were established churches in Bedford and if so, what were they called. If anyone finds the answer to this puzzle, be sure to post. Kay

Marylin, If you find out about John AYERS I would like to know too. Seems he married a few of my bunch. Jeri Gallus

Bill: Check with these folks. They can probably put you in touch with what you need. Bedford City/Co Museum For research, contact: Bedford City/County Museum 201 East Main Street Bedford, VA 24523 Tele: (540) 586-4520 Hours: 10-5 Mon-Sat, exc Holidays Lynda Murphy

Thanks so very much to all who wrote giving me tidbits of information about JOHN AYRES. He must have performed many marriages in the area during his lifetime! I began to wonder if he had a "settle down" church or if he was a circuit rider. Marilyn Garrison

Harry: The following is a link for the Bedford County Marriages listed on the homepage. http://people.delphi.com/fspradlin/bedf-mar.htm Good Luck!! Lynda

I have severl preacher "John Ayres" over in Buckingham County. I also have seen the John Ayres doing marriages in Bedford and wonder if a preacher would rove that far back then. Any ideas? I have John (Parson Jack) Ayres b 1772 - between 1851 &1860 was Methidist I think there is another preacher John in there somewhere. Rob Ayres -----Original Message----- From: Dan/Marilyn Garrison <dmgarrison@stlnet.com> To: VABEDFOR-L@rootsweb.com <VABEDFOR-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Sunday, November 01, 1998 6:06 AM Subject: John Ayres >I notice that in records of Bedford Co., early marriages were sometimes >performed by JOHN AYRES. Does anyone know if he was a pastor of a >church or a someone in the court system (as a Justice of the Peace) >authorized to perform marriages? I am trying to pull out information I >can on the Morgan name to help in my search. Thanks. Marilyn Garrison > >______________________________

I am looking for ANY information on any ABBOTTs that anyone may have from the Bedford County, Virginia, area. I've run into a huge brick wall and am looking for any connections. Thanks. Judy Tanner ktanner@worldnet.att.net

Dear Group, I have just obtained copies of some very old Booth Records in Virginia, dating back to 1651. I would be willing to trade anyone for information on William and Elizabeth Booth, parents of (Martha?) Octavia or Octaba Booth, born May 1, 1855. I have searched endlessly to find info on her ancestors with no luck! These records came from the personal files of Walter Hopkins, Attorney at Law(deceased). Thank you for taking the time to read this message. Warm Regards, Donna Wingfield