In a message dated 2/16/2006 7:40:10 PM, PeggyWitty@aol.com writes: >I am trying to locate where my Winchesters were prior to 1768 when they >were known to be in North Carolina.  If anyone on this list has run across the >WINCHESTER name in Virginia please let me know. I happened to be reading about Frederick County, Maryland land records in Patricia Abelard Andersen's series of abstracts of land records of Frederick Co., MD and the name Winchester jumped out. She referred to an article in Western Maryland Genealogy, Vol. 14, No. 1, Jan. 1998, edited and published at that time by Donna Valley Russell of Catoctin Press. I believe Western Maryland Genealogy was later published by Patricia Abelard Andersen. In Western Maryland Genealogy, Jan. 1998, pg. 37, there was an article titled, "First Lot Owners in Westminster, Maryland" by George Horvath and Donna Valley Russell, CG, FASG. I quote from the article: "William Winchester was born in the Westminster section of London on 22 December 1710 and arrived in Annapolis on 6 March 1729 in the ship Hume. He married 22 July 1747 Lydia Richards, daughter of Edward Richards of Baltimore. She was born 4 August 1727. William was a surveyor and laid out the town of Westminster, originally called Winchester, which was part of his family seat, White Level. William and Lydia had ten children , some of whom remained in the area while others went to Kentucky. William died 2 September 1790; Lydia died 19 February 1809." The source for the information in the above paragraph is: Fanny Winchester Hotchkiss, Winchester Notes (New Haven, CT., 1912), pp. 319-21. Included in the article is a list of the lot owners and a plat of Westminster. At the time Westminster was laid out it was in Frederick Co., Maryland. It now is in Carroll Co., MD (established 1837) and is the county seat. Frederick Co., was established in 1748 from part of Prince George's County. In one volume of Patricia Abelard Andersen's series, "Frederick County Maryland Land Records, Liber L Abstracts, 1767-1770 With Supersedeas Abstracts to 1773," in the introduction on page "i", and on page 58, it states that Westminster began officially on 31 August 1768, when a plat for the town was recorded by William Winchester, who sold lots in Westminster. William Winchester and Stephen Winchester laid out Addition to Westminster in 1788. She refers to the article in Western Maryland Genealogy mentioned above. Also, Winchester's were in the city of Frederick, Frederick Co., Maryland. There was a Professor Hiram Winchester who began a school, the Frederick Female Seminary, in Frederick. This may have been what later became Hood College. See Monacacy and Catoctin, Vol. 3, by Calvin E. Schildknecht, published by Family Line, Westminster (now Willow Bend Books). So, you might look in Frederick and Carroll counties, MD for your Winchester's. Also, see if Donna Valley Russell has a copy of those Winchester notes she refers to, or find out where she saw them, perhaps at a genealogy library. Or look at Willow Bend Books website for books on Connecticut and the Winchester's. If you trace your line back to one of the Maryland Winchester's, you may need to pursue it back into Prince George's, MD county records. Hope some of this is fruitful. Valerie