Dear Larry Stitt (Shadow) You wrote, in part: I have been off the internet for awhile so I thought perhaps it is time to resubscribe and resubmit my direct Williams line.  Feel free to visit My Williams Family Genealogy Page at http://www.ctaz.com/~shadgraf/williams.htm : 1.  William WILLIAMS (My 4GGF) b. Dec 1778 in Pittsylvania County, VA, d.1857 in VA or Gentry County,MO, and Sarah Ann CHATTIN b. abt 1780 in Pittsylvania County, VA,  d. Tazewell County, VA abt 1835.  William and Sarah were married Mar 1798 in Pittsylvania County, VA.  Names of William's parents and siblings are unknown.  He is my "brick wall." Response re your brick wall in Pittsylvania Co.: I picked up on this because I wondered whether William Williams of Pittsylvania Co, VA might be a son of Robert Williams of Pittsylvania Co. (1744-ca. 1790) and his wife, the widow of his cousin, Sarah Williams, nee Lanier, dau. of Thomas Lanier, who died testate in Granville Co., NC (colonial times). However, the info I have about Robert Williams does not indicate he had a son named William. Besides, Robert Williams, alleged son of Nathaniel Williams I (probably of Hanover Co., but perhaps of Louisa Co. and about whom descendants seem to know nothing) and grandson of John Williams I of Hanover Co. (d. 1735 or so)., moved to North Carolina, and your people seemed to stay in Virginia for a while. May I suggest a couple of techniques to discover who are the parents of your William Williams: 1. Examine the land records/patents of Pittsylvania Co. prior to the Revolution. There are now seven volumes of Cavaliers and Pioneers, the last four volumes rather recently published in the 1990s by the VA Genealogical Society of Richmond; the compiler is Dennis Ray Hudgins. These are abstracts of the Royal land patents in Virginia prior to the Revolution. Determine whether any patents were made to Williamses in Pittsylvania Co. Pittsylvania was formed 1766 from Halifax Co., so you may want to look at the land patents of Halifax Co. also, not to mention Lunenburg Co. which was a huge county at one time. C&P is well indexed. The counties are indexed, the surnames are indexed, the creeks, the runs, the swamps, etc. If you determine that your Williams, and Chattins too, were on a certain watercourse, then you want to collect all the neighbors on that watercourse, because they probably were intermarried! (A professional taught me to sort out people with similar names by collecting their associates and determining their watercourse--at least for Southerners. They intermarried with people on the same watercourse, as a general rule. Of course, there are always exceptions.). 2. Take a look at this website for books which have been published for Southside Virginia (and other localities, of course). www.tlcgenealogy.org I have found their books of great help in locating some of my Williamses--but the records don't solve all the problems. I believe on that website was a free listing of taxpayers for Lunenburg Co., which encompassed large parts of what became other counties. Check for your surnames on that tax list. 3. Check the LDS website for the online catalog of the Family History Library www.familysearch.org Type in Pittsylvania Co. If you are near an LDS center, you can borrow films through your local center for a small fee. The catch is you have to have time to read the films! However, I see there are at Salt Lake City some intriguing, recently published books on Pittsylvania land records. Through your LDS center, you can request that certain pages of the books can be photocopied (for a fee) for you. What one noted genealogist does, who now lives in Virginia: She requests that the indexes of certain books (or certain surnames in that index) be photocopied for her. Then she sends away a request for those pages of the book. The family history library in Salt Lake City will do this photocopying for you--for a small fee. When people, such as probably yourself, are employed, you have to do a lot of armchair research, and this is how you can do some of it. Long before internet, that's how I conducted my research--writing lots of letters--and being disappointed when the mail person failed to bring me a letter or two. I have had some terrific correspondents in the past. The internet makes it faster, but not necessarily better!!! Because so much is undocumented--and that makes it virtually useless to a dedicated genealogist. I hope you find the parents of your William Williams. I have an ancestor named William Williams, but he died at Boonesborough, then VA, on or about Christmas Day 1775, fortunately, leaving a will. He was from Granville Co., NC. His wife was Phillis. E.W.Wallace southern California