The advice given by professional genealogists-lecturers is that before you can *jump the pond*--to find information about your ancestors with European origins--you have to gather as much evidence as you can on this side of the pond. With some Germans in Pennsylvania, the tracing is somewhat easier because scholars have been working on those origins for decades! Some personal experience: For example, my maternal grandmother, born in Wye England in 1872, came with her family to Texas in 1885. How did I discover this information? Well, for one thing, my uncle had interviewed his mother before dementia set in, and she gave him a good deal of information. He, an amateur historian, carefully wrote this down for his siblings, and one of my aunts gave me a copy. My grandmother, the immigrant, was a teenager when the family came and therefore knew some of the family's experiences in England. (I found a LOT more because of Civil Registration in England, begun in 1857--something which this vast country does not have on a national basis.) . At any rate, by examining the deeds in the county where the Emglish family bought land, I discovered information about my great-grandfather's immigration date and where he landed, etc. Of course, this paper trail is much easier to follow in more recent years. To try to jump from colonial Virginia back to England or to any part of the United Kingdom would be really difficult, in most cases. A few wealthy people may have had a paper trail back to the "old country* as my grandmother called England. But, if you read or are told some of the history of colonial Virginia, a good many of our people in Virginia were of the poorer class. Some, if not a majority, were given a choice: Go to prison or be transported to an English colony such as the English colonies in America or the Barbados, which of course is in the Caribbean. Or, some chose to come rather than starve in England. (I picked up a slender book in a library today about the establishment of Maryland. It probably was written for school children, but it was easy to read and I could get a good grasp of the history and of the politics of colonial Maryland in a short time.) If the researcher wants to look for a somewhat unusual name in England, probably a good place to start might be [not totally satisfactory] the IGI = International Genealogical Index, which is on Family History Library website _www.familysearch.org_ (http://www.familysearch.org) Be sure to think of variants of the surname when searching. I learned when reading parish records for my grandmother's ancestors that the vicar, who was usually trained at one of the Universities, spoke a different kind of English than did the poor peasant. Each part of England seems to have its own dialect. Most people these days can speak proper English, but when discussing matters with family members, they generally use a dialect of that region. At any rate, I quickly learned that the surname of my grandmother's family was spelled about half a dozen different ways by the educated vicar, who wrote what he thought he heard! Offhand, the questioner about early settlers of Louisa Co. might begin a research of the land grants/patents of Virginia which are online at the Library of Virginia website. And read a book on Virginia (and Maryland and a lot of other colonies) headrights. And transportation. And how the migrating ancestor may have had to pay for his transportation by being indentured for about four to seven years! A scholar in England has compiled many books on migrants to America--His name is Peter Wilson Coldham. Do an catalog search on the LDS website [given above] and do an author search in the FHL catalog--which is on the right side of the screen. Then you will have to see what libraries in your neighborhood might have some of Coldham's books. They are an eye-opener about people being transported to these shores. American research is so challenging--and surprising--and at times, disappointing, that I don't bother with trying to find the European home for colonials, especially since my Dad's lineage is full of common names!!! Unless one's ancestry was of the gentry in the United Kingdom, his/her origins in UK may be especially difficult to trace. (What if he had been imprisoned? How would that feel?) England, to this day, is still class conscious, although it is diminishing at a rapid rate. I hope you find some exciting material on your ancestral family on this side of the pond!!! E.W.Wallace ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com