In a message dated 9/11/00 4:08:06 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Sjg3587@aol.com writes: << Democrats have dominated West Virginia politics since the Great Depression; Gaston Caperton, elected governor in 1988 and reelected in 1992, was succeeded by another Democrat, Cecil H. Underwood, elected in 1996. >> I enjoyed both articles written on West Virginia history, but would like to call attention to a small, insignificant error, the article referred to Gov. Underwood as a Democrat, Cecil H. Underwood, a Republican, was elected as West Virginia's youngest governor in 1956 at age 34, next elected 40 years later as the most senior governor at age 74 in 1996. He is running for reelection in 2000, since West Virginia has a 2 term limit this would be his last term if elected. Thank You Sidney P. Dent

Hello Listers: I am looking for information on Fannie Price, born April 6, 1890, who married Wil Brown born in 1886. I think they were from the Bald Knob area. I am also looking for information on history of running moonshine in WV. Thanks Jeanne Maschari bankerjeanne@centurytel.net

How Virginia Split Into "East" and West Virginia? http://geog.gmu.edu/gess/classes/geog380/westva.html Political conflicts among Tidewater, the Piedmont, Northern Virginia, and however many regions you wish to identify are a long part of the state's history. These differences led to a formal split and the creation of a new state, West Virginia, in 1863. European settlers did not spread out through Virginia after 1607 like ripples from a rock thrown into a pond. The English settled first in Tidewater Virginia, clearing the land near the rivers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Instead of a smooth, gradual spread outward from one central place, English settlement was primarily north of the James and east of the Fall Line. South of the James, in the Albermarle-Pamlico Sound watershed, there was less demand for land in the first 150 years after Jamestown. By 1700, a gentry of 5% or so of the population (the "First Families of Virginia"or Cavaliers) took control of the politics and economy of the colony. The plantation owners shifted from importing indentured servants to importing slaves as the primary labor force for their tobacco plantations. They built large manor houses on their Tidewater plantations - Berkeley, Carter's Grove, Mount Airy, Stratford Hall. Using their influence in the House of Burgesses and with the Governor, they obtained land grants and speculated in western lands - lands west of the Fall Line. The Lees and Carters competed in the upper Potomac watershed for control of the Fairfax land office and access to waterfront property downstream of Great Falls. Governor Spottswood led a real estate speculation expedition up the Rappahannock River valley in 1716. His "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe" crossed the Blue Ridge near where modern US Route 33 passes through Thornton Gap. The "knights" celebrated their arrival with multiple toasts of wine, brandy, and claret on the banks of the Shenandoah River, in an evening party that is still memorable nearly 300 years later. Modern real estate agents will recognize the expedition (and the party...) as a familiarization tour to spur land sales. The old saying about real estate values being determined by three things ("location, location, and location") applied in colonial times as well as today. Spottswood himself imported indentured servants to develop an iron plantation at Germanna, upstream from Fredericksburg, while defending his even-handedness in supporting development south of the James. Even today there appears at least the perception of colonial official bias towards settlement north of the James River, in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. While the officials in Williamsburg processed requests for grants and occasionally an actual survey for a patent west of the mountains, a few of the gentry actually visited their land claims on the other side of the Blue Ridge. George Washington spent much of the 1750's in Shenandoah Valley and travelled south to Shawsville to inspect frontier forts. Patrick Henry travelled to visit his properties nearby in Christiansburg, a town named after his brother-in-law William Christian. But most settlement west of the Blue Ridge came from a different direction, *not* from Tidewater Virginia. The House of Burgesses created new counties stretching to the crest of the Blue Ridge (such as Prince William) in the 1730's, but settlers did not spread westward in a steady flow. Instead, lands west of the Blue Ridge were settled by immigrants walking southwest from Philadelphia, before all the lands east of the mountains were fully occupied. In an agricultural economy, the higher-quality limestone soils of the valley were one reason for bypassing the Blue Ridge. Even today, Virginia's two primary agricultural producers are Augusta and Rockingham counties. Recognizing the uneconomic value of farming in the mountains, Virginia purchased the hard-scrabble farms in the Blue Ridge 70 years ago and donated the land to the Federal government for Shenandoah National Park. However, a more substantial reason for settling the Shenandoah Valley from the north rather than the east was cultural rather than physical. The religious intolerance in Europe spurred many refugees to flee to the New World in the first half of the 1700's. Virginia had "established" the Anglican church as an official part of the government. Mandatory church levies (i. e., taxes collected by the sheriff) funded both social welfare and church operations, including the construction of the brick colonial churches still seen in Tidewater today (such as Bruton Parish church in Williamsburg and Pohick Church in Fairfax County). NOTE: Tidewater was dominated by the Church of England, but was not exclusively Anglican. International shipping ports like Norfolk had numerous non-Anglican sailors adding diversity to the Virginia culture, and the colony was relatively tolerant of Protestant dissenters. Prior to the French and Indian War, Scottish merchants ("factors" purchasing tobacco in Fall Line cities from small planters) provided a Presbyterian business class. In addition, in the Piedmont a substantial number of indentured servants and poor farmers were stimulated by the "Great Awakening" and itinerant dissident preachers, especially the Baptists. Patrick Henry's mother was a Presbyteriqan convert, perhaps one reason he was such a rabble-rouser... Historians still debate how the threat to the hegemony (domination) of the gentry class affected the political thinking prior to the American Revolution. West of the Blue Ridge, the Anglican and Tidewater English presence was far more limited. Immigrants coming south through Pennsylvania were predominantly Protestant - but not Anglican - refugees, people who fled the many conflicts among political states that have now been assembled into modern-day Germany. These Pennsylvania "Dutch" fled to William Penn's haven, the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania. They discovered the price of land was lower as they moved west, and substantially less as they crossed the Potomac River into the "empty" Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. The valley was empty primarily because disease had dramatically reduced the population of the indigenous peoples, the Native Americans or "Indians" who had lived along the river for 10- 12,000 years. [Shenandoah is an Indian word supposedly meaning Daughter of the Stars.] In the days when transportation was by one-horsepower wagon, the Blue Ridge was a significant physical barrier that divided the colony. "East" Virginia was the Tidewater region, plus the Piedmont region where small planters produced tobacco for export. Those planters rolled hogsheads of tobacco eastward, downhill to the cities like Fredericksburg developing along the Fall Line, in order to ship their crop to Europe. Wagons that carried crops eastward to market returned home with nails, cloth, and other manufactured products. The mercantile system ensured that industries in England would have a market in the colonies, and the Fall Line cities became the "hinge" between the Piedmont and England. But those cities were irrelevant to the immigrants west of the Blue Ridge, so long as roads through the mountain gaps were too poor for farm wagons. The immigrants who had come south from Philadelphia, migrating west to Lancaster and then following the limestone valleys south into Virginia, sent their farm products back north as well. Since the roads were poor (OK, really really poor), hauling tobacco to Philadelphia was a poor (OK, really really poor...) economic decision. So the immigrants in the valley raised livestock, walking their herds to market in Baltimore and Philadelphia long before cattle drives of Texas longhorns captured Hollywood's imagination. If the movie moguls ever film a Virginia cattle drive, look for the herds of cattle from the South Branch of the Potomac River walking north, down the Shenandoah Valley. [After numerous pauses for grazing on grasslands in the valley, the herds should cross the Potomac River and then veer eastward to the market cities of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Expect the herd of cattle to be followed by droves of pigs, feeding on the manure left behind on the trail by the cattle. And don't be surprised if there's a flock of turkeys or chickens behind the pigs, fully utilizing all the food resources on the way to market.] Prior to the French and Indian War, the economic ties, religious sympathies, and family loyalties of the Shenandoah settlers were to the north, not towards Tidewater Virginia. However, after the Piedmont filled with settlers oriented to the Tidewater, a substantial number of "English" immigrants came into the valley across the Blue Ridge. The French and Indian War triggered a decade of Tidewater commitment to the valley, from 1753-1763. George Washington lived in Winchester for several years as the commander of the Virginia forces, and the legislature and the governor committed substantial resources (though still far-from-enough) to fund forts and militia on the frontier from the Potomac to the New River. He was sensitized to the western attitudes and sought throughout his political career to use transportation improvements to link western loyalties to the primary American cities on the East Coast. By the 1800's, roads crossed from Tidewater through the "wind gaps" in the Blue Ridge to the Valley. In the 1850's, railroads such as the Manassas Gap Railroad cemented the economic ties between the valley and the Fall Line cities. But transportation improvements were never fairly allocated to the western counties of Virginia. After the Board of Public Works was created in 1816, the state financed 40-60% of the cost for turnpikes, plank roads, canals, and railroads. The legislature approved few projects west of the Allegheny Front, where the waters drained into the Ohio River. Instead, the Tidewater-dominated General Assembly supported projects to enhance farm-to-market transportation leading to Petersburg, Richmond, and Fredericksburg. (Alexandria was part of the District of Columbia from 1800-1846, and the State of Virginia was reluctant to finance improvements to a non-Virginia city during those years.) And the western counties were grossly under-represented in the General Assembly. The number of white males west of the Blue Ridge was greater than the equivalent population east of the mountains, when the state constitution was revised in the early 1850's. But the constitution was written so the western counties would never achieve control of the State Senate. Tidewater planters were concerned that western voters would change the tax structure to finance "internal improvements." The Tidewater planters ensured property taxes on slaves remained low, while taxes on land were relatively high. The western residents had most of their investments in land while the eastern planters had invested in slaves. Instead of ensuring the tax burden was fair, the western residents were taxed more heavily - and the taxes were used to finance transportation improvements in the eastern portion of the state. [Think there was ill will between the regions of Virginia before the Civil War? Northern Virginians benefitted when Whigs controlled the General Assembly, supporting internal improvements in the Potomac watershed such as the C&O canal. Democrats steered investments to the James River watershed when they controlled the political machinery. But westerners never gor their fair share... no matter which party was in control before the Civil War.] When the secession Convention finally voted to leave the Union in April 1861, the representatives of the western counties chose to meet separately and to "secede" from Virginia. This political decision was the final break, creating a fixed political boundary between two separate states after West Virginia was accepted into the Union. What had been a shifting frontier between Virginians who were oriented towards the Chesapeake Bay vs. the Mississippi drainage was locked into place. Had the official split occurred 90 years earlier, the boundary may have been the crest of the Blue Ridge. Had the Civil War occurred in 1850, then West Virginia may have included what is now the Ninth Congressional District. Once the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad was built, connecting Southwest Virginia with Tidewater ports, subsistence agriculture was replaced with a cash economy based on tobacco. As part of the cultural change, slavery became more common in the region - and of course the counties went into debt to help finance the railroad. The boundary commission that recommended what counties should be included in the new state purposefully excluded those counties with a heavy debt load...

RESEARCHING WEST VIRGINIA #2 The Columbia Encyclopedia: Sixth Edition. 2000. http://www.bartleby.com/65/we/WestVa.html West Virginia E central state of the United States. It is bordered by Pennsylvania and Maryland (N), Virginia (E and S), and Kentucky and, across the Ohio R., Ohio (W). 1 Facts and Figures Area, 24,181 sq mi (62,629 sq km). Pop. (1995 est.) 1,828,000; (1990) 1,793,477, an 8% decrease from 1980 pop. Capital and largest city, Charleston. Statehood, June 20, 1863 (35th state). Highest pt., Spruce Knob, 4,863 ft (1,483 m); lowest pt., Potomac R., 240 ft (73 m). Nickname, Mountain State. Motto, Montani Semper Liberi [Mountaineers Are Always Free]. State bird, cardinal. State flower, Rhododendron maximum, or “Big Laurel.” State tree, sugar maple. Abbr., W.Va.; WV 2 Geography Nicknamed the “Mountain State,” West Virginia is very hilly and rugged, with the highest mean altitude (1,500 ft/457 m) of any state E of the Mississippi. Nearly all of the state is on the Allegheny Plateau, with the jagged Virginia–West Virginia line roughly following the eastern escarpment of the plateau (known as the Allegheny Front). Extremely irregular in outline, West Virginia has two narrow projections—the Northern Panhandle, which cuts north between Ohio and Pennsylvania, and the Eastern Panhandle, which cuts east between Maryland (with the Potomac River forming the state line) and Virginia. In the Eastern Panhandle, a part of the Appalachian ridge and valley country, lie the state’s lowest point (240 ft/73 m) near Harpers Ferry where the Shenandoah River joins the Potomac, as well as its highest point, Spruce Knob (4,860 ft/1,481 m). 3 West Virginia is well drained; its important rivers include the Tug Fork, the Big Sandy River, the New River, the Kanawha, the Little Kanawha, the Cheat, and the Monongahela, all of which find their way to the Ohio. The New River and the Kanawha combine to form the most important waterway entirely within the state. West Virginia’s climate is generally of the humid continental type, with hot summers (except in the highest areas) and cool to cold winters. 4 West Virginia’s natural beauty is spectacular, and the excellent hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, and skiing offered here form the basis of a growing tourist industry. The state has numerous state parks, public hunting areas, and state forests; Monongahela National Forest and a portion of George Washington National Forest (most of which is in Virginia) are in West Virginia. Mineral springs are scattered throughout the state, notably at the resorts of Berkeley Springs and White Sulphur Springs. Other tourist attractions include Harpers Ferry National Historical Park (see National Parks and Monuments, table) and various mounds built by ancient peoples, most notably Grave Creek Mound in Moundsville, one of the nation’s largest. Charleston is the capital and largest city; Huntington is the second largest city, followed by Wheeling and Parkersburg. 5 Economy Except on river-bottom lands, on a few small plateaus, and in the northern end of the rolling, fertile Valley of Virginia in the Eastern Panhandle, farming is not extensive. (The population nevertheless is predominantly rural.) Apples, peaches, hay, corn, and tobacco are the principal crops, while broiler chickens, cattle, and dairy products lead in market receipts. West Virginia has extensive natural resources; it is among the nation’s leading producers of bituminous coal, although coal production has declined. Natural gas, stone, cement, salt, and oil are also important. 6 Utilizing these mineral resources are major glass, chemical (including synthetic textile), and high-technology industries; they are concentrated in the highly industrialized Ohio and Kanawha river valleys, with Charleston a leading center; Huntington and Parkersburg are also important. Other manufactures include primary and fabricated metals and machinery. Steel mills extend south from Pittsburgh, Pa., into the Northern Panhandle; Wheeling is a manufacturing hub there. Lumber has long been an important resource; about two thirds of the land is still forested, most of it in valuable hardwoods. Since the 1960s a number of federal offices and facilities have been built in West Virginia, and government service is a growing employment sector. 7 Government, Politics, and Higher Education West Virginia’s first constitution was ratified in 1862. The present constitution dates from 1872. The executive branch is headed by a governor elected for a four-year term. The state’s legislature has a senate with 34 members and a house of delegates with 100 members. The state sends two senators and three representatives to the U.S. Congress and has five electoral votes. Democrats have dominated West Virginia politics since the Great Depression; Gaston Caperton, elected governor in 1988 and reelected in 1992, was succeeded by another Democrat, Cecil H. Underwood, elected in 1996. 8 The state’s leading institution of higher learning is West Virginia Univ., which has its main campus at Morgantown. Other schools include the Univ. of Charleston and West Virginia Wesleyan College, at Buckhannon. West Virginia also has an extensive state college system. 9 History Early Inhabitants and European Settlement The Mound Builders were the earliest known inhabitants. When the first Europeans arrived, however, the region was for the most part unpopulated, serving as a common hunting ground (and therefore a battleground) for the settlers and Native Americans. This part of Virginia, which later became West Virginia, was penetrated by explorers and fur traders as early as the 1670s. It was cut off from the eastern regions by rugged mountains and remained uninhabited for more than a century after Virginia had thriving colonies. 10 What is now the Eastern Panhandle attracted the first settlers. They were Germans and Scotch-Irish, and they came not over the Blue Ridge Mts. from Virginia but rather down the valleys from Pennsylvania. German families established (c.1730) a settlement on the Potomac and named it Mecklenburg; now called Shepherdstown, it is the oldest town in the state. Homes sprang up along the rivers, but the formidable Allegheny Plateau barrier was not crossed until after the British government, concerned about French claims to the Ohio valley, granted (1749) the Ohio Company large tracts of land in the trans-Allegheny region. 11 Settlers began laboriously making their way over the mountains, and they eventually came into conflict with the French; this conflict was the direct cause of the French and Indian War (1754–63; see under French and Indian Wars). During the war, most settlers fled the area. They returned after the English captured Fort Duquesne in 1758 and broke the French hold on the Ohio valley. Great numbers poured back over the mountains, ignoring the British proclamation of 1763, which, in the hopes of avoiding conflict with the Native Americans, forbade settlement W of the Alleghenies. 12 The Native Americans resented this encroachment on their hunting grounds, and their hostility was fed by the often unjust treatment they received at the hands of settlers. The brutal murder of the family of chief James Logan provoked a series of attacks that resulted in Lord Dunmore’s War (see Dunmore, John Murray, 4th earl of), in which the Native Americans were decisively defeated (Oct. 10, 1774). 13 The American Revolution During the American Revolution the area was invaded three times by British-led Native American forces. After the American conquest of the Northwest by an army (consisting mostly of western Virginians) under George Rogers Clark, the British and Native American threat to the area was virtually removed. Western Virginians overwhelmingly supported ratification of the U.S. Constitution; they wanted a strong federal government that would quell further conflict with the Native Americans and that would enrich commerce along the Ohio, a river of central importance to their economic life. 14 Growth and Estrangement from Eastern Virginia Population growth and prosperity were spurred by the opening of the Mississippi River with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, by the resulting expansion and improvement of river-borne commerce, and by the completion (1818) of the National Road at Wheeling. The area became an increasingly important part of Virginia, but the predominance of small farms and the almost total absence of slavery were already contributing to a sense of estrangement from the eastern part of the state. 15 Virginia was politically dominated by the wealthy tidewater planters, who were overrepresented in the state legislature because slaves were counted in apportioning representation. As a result the western Virginians suffered from inequitable taxation, and their demands for internal improvements and public education were not met. A new Virginia constitution, ratified in 1830, brought no reforms, but another charter (1851) effected a compromise by which representation in the lower house was based on white population and under which universal white male suffrage was granted. It was not enough; tidewater domination of the state legislature continued, and the two sections were being pulled further apart by economic differences—western Virginia was becoming an industrialized coal and steel center—and by the increasing prominence of the slavery issue. 16 Civil War and the Creation of West Virginia At the outset of the Civil War the northwestern counties of Virginia overwhelmingly opposed the state’s ordinance of secession (Apr. 17, 1861). Unable to halt Virginia’s secession from the Union, westerners in the state were quick to take advantage of a long-awaited opportunity for their own separation from Virginia. Protected by federal troops, delegates representing most of Virginia’s western counties met at Wheeling on June 11, 1861, and nullified the Virginia ordinance of secession, declared the offices of the state government at Richmond to be vacated, and formed the “restored government” of Virginia, with Francis H. Pierpont as governor. 17 Creation of a new state was overwhelmingly approved in the referendum of Oct. 24, and in November another convention at Wheeling began to draft the state constitution that was approved in Apr., 1862. President Lincoln proclaimed (Apr. 20, 1863) admission of a new state, West Virginia, to be effective 60 days thence, and on June 20, 1863, Arthur I. Boreman was inaugurated as its first governor. Pierpont and his “restored government” of Virginia had, of course, consented to the formation of the new state, thereby technically fulfilling the requirement in the U.S. Constitution that a state consent to its own division. Pierpont continued to act as governor of occupied Virginia throughout the war. 18 Meanwhile, the Confederates had failed to hold on to the region militarily; Union forces, under the command of Gen. George B. McClellan and then under Gen. William S. Rosecrans, were victorious in battles at Philippi (June 3, 1861), Rich Mt. (July 11), Corrick’s Ford (July 13), and Carnifax Ferry (Sept. 10). Gen. Robert E. Lee’s attempt to rally the Confederate forces ended in defeat at Cheat Mt. (Sept. 12–13), and a year later Rosecrans’s victory at Gauley Bridge extended Union control to the lower Kanawha valley. 19 The Confederates made no serious endeavor to recover the territory W of the Allegheny Front, although guerrilla attacks persisted throughout the war. The strategically important Eastern Panhandle, on the other hand, was the scene of continual fighting; not originally a part of West Virginia, it had been quickly annexed (1863) because it contained the Baltimore and Ohio RR. (West Virginia’s possession of this area was confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1871.) Of the many West Virginians who remained loyal to the old state, Virginia, the most notable was Gen. Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson; his only sister, however, was a staunch Union supporter. Such a division in allegiance was common in many families, and these divisions affected West Virginia’s politics for several decades after the war. 20 Postwar Political Changes and the Hatfield-McCoy Feud Slavery was abolished in 1865, but it was not until 1872 that the state allowed African Americans to vote and to hold public office. In 1866 Radical Republicans disenfranchised all persons who had aided the Confederacy, but after the Democrats came to power (which they held for 25 years thereafter), this act was annulled (1871) by the Flick Amendment. 21 In 1885 the capital, which had been shuttled back and forth between Wheeling and Charleston, became fixed at Charleston. Three years earlier, along the border region between West Virginia and Kentucky, there had begun the now famous Hatfield-McCoy feud, which was to encompass many killings and embroil the governors of the two states in lengthy and heated controversy. The blood of West Virginia Hatfields and Kentucky McCoys was shed until 1896. Bibliography See O. K. Rice, The Allegheny Frontier: West Virginia Beginnings, 1780–1830 (1969); West Virginia: The State and Its People (1972); and West Virginia: A History (1985); Federal Writers’ Project, West Virginia: A Guide to the Mountain State (1941, repr. 1980); S. B. Cohen and M. Pervical, King Coal (1984); A. Hyde, A Portrait of West Virginia (1989).

In a message dated 9/11/00 8:46:36 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Sjg3587@aol.com writes: << was whizzing through some material looking for keywords, and noted that had "counties, border, WV, VA, broke away", and it was either RW or CW that this happened? I know that is vague, but like most of us, I plow through a lot of material every day .... >> The western counties of Virginia broke away in 1863, during the Civil War...:) Melissa Strobel list-admin; Pa-Civil-War Co. I; 11th PVI

I was not the person who complained about all the mail, it was someone who wrote asking why he was getting all the mail, I told him he was on a mail list. On another topic here is the source of the quote In the first book I checked, "a humorous [?] name for West Virginia said to have been coined by an irate native when it was said he came from Virginia, Replied the man, Not Virginia, but WEST, by God, Virginia from Whistlin' Dixie by Robert Hendrickson Sandy in Fla :-) > In a message dated 9/10/00 9:31:16 PM Eastern Daylight Time, > mcclung.1@osu.edu writes: > > > I always suspected that he had heard it elsewhere. > > > > Do you have any suggestions where I might find information on such a > subject?

> In a message dated 9/10/00 8:50:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time, > Jjhicks878@cs.com writes: > > Why am I getting all this junk mail which is a waste of my time to go > > through? My time is short. My time is important in locating my family and > > ancestors who are from WV. I was raised there and I'm much prouder of my > home > > state than to waste valuable time on your nonessential chatter in my > e-mail. > > I don't know how you got my address, but, I WILL find out. > > You are signed up to a mail list, that means you get mail from anyone on the > list, if you don't want the mail you need to unsub, but making threats is not > a good idea > > Thanks for writing. > Sandy in Florida > > > ============================== > Join the RootsWeb WorldConnect Project: > Linking the world, one GEDCOM at a time. > http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/

AS "everyone" knows, a researcher has to be aware of the political, economic, and historical framework of the time/era and place/locale they are researching in because it helps to track some of the ancestors who to prove to difficult to trace. Seems to me if one record says WV and another says VA that it is a good idea to pin down timeframes and causes for when this seemingly schizoid situation occured. I was whizzing through some material looking for keywords, and noted that had "counties, border, WV, VA, broke away", and it was either RW or CW that this happened? I know that is vague, but like most of us, I plow through a lot of material every day .... Does anyone know of a brief online outline of the history along the WV/VA border that they would like to recommend? Suz G

In a message dated 9/10/00 8:50:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Jjhicks878@cs.com writes: > Why am I getting all this junk mail which is a waste of my time to go > through? My time is short. My time is important in locating my family and > ancestors who are from WV. I was raised there and I'm much prouder of my home > state than to waste valuable time on your nonessential chatter in my e-mail. > I don't know how you got my address, but, I WILL find out. You are signed up to a mail list, that means you get mail from anyone on the list, if you don't want the mail you need to unsub, but making threats is not a good idea Thanks for writing. Sandy in Florida

The Washington County, Maryland Historical Society will be having their annual Keedysville By Candlelight Tour in December. Tickets for this event go on sale next week. For more information: http://www.rootsweb.com/~mdwchs/candlelight.html Thanks! Don & Jeanine

In a message dated 9/10/00 7:16:32 PM Eastern Daylight Time, MountainMaMaPat writes: > Well, I have another saying that I have heard since way back when and it is > "West-By-God-Smile-When-You-Say-It-Virginia" and I'm 64 years old. I'm not > in WV now, but my heart is and it will always be home for me. > My mother also said West Virginia, bow your head when you say that! Thanks for writing. Sandy in Florida [Sandra Sommerville Wells Griffith] <A HREF="http://www.angelfire.com/fl2/sandrag">All My Mama's</A> Maybe I will catch up with my mail when I retire, in 2010, <grin>

I haven't a clue whether it is true or not, but my father [Keith McClung of Rupert/Hartford] always felt he was the originator of that phrase. He stated that after a WVU victory over Pitt in Pittsburg in ?1922, he jumped up on a chair in the ?Fort Pitt Hotel and shouted that out. He stated that an hour later it was heard at the celebration parties throughout downtown. Does anybody know of the origins or time-line for this phrase? Juhling McClung

In a message dated 9/10/00 1:33:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time, mcclung.1@osu.edu writes: > I haven't a clue whether it is true or not, but my father [Keith McClung of > Rupert/Hartford] always felt he was the originator of that phrase. He My mother said it all her life, I always assumed it had more to do with not being Virginia, i.e. 'are you from Virginia?', no i am from West by God Virginia Thanks for writing. Sandy in Florida Maybe I will catch up with my mail when I retire, in 2010, <grin>

I about five weeks ago I sent a request to the W.Va. Vital Statistics office to get a copy of the death cert. for my 1/2 brother Edward John North. I received the cancelled check but no response as yet. I understand that these requests take some time. Would it be possible for someone who is going to the W.Va. Vital Statistics Bureau, (if there is one), to look up a death certificate for me and send me the information while I am waiting? I would be most appreciative. His name is Edward John North. Last name could be Magnus or Mangus. I don't know if he was adopted after being sent to live with cousins named Magnus/Mangus from Mass. as an infant in 1929. I was told he died in an automobile accident in 1947 or 1948. Thank you, Jerry North

On 8-16-00 I sent $ and form requesting the birth certificate of my mother, Eva June Sutton to Charleston, WV. No answer as of yet at all.....it has been a month this week and form states abt. 5 business days. guess I will have to do a follow=up to them. Info: Eva June Sutton b. 02-Jan-1936 in Smithburg, Doddridge, WV. parents: Harley Earl and Blanch May (Griffith) Sutton I visited WV one week after sending in my request (Doddridge County). They told me birth certificate would be in Charleston (just where I sent it as instructed). I know for a fact it is not in Doddridge Co. Courthouse. Any one know why it takes so long?, with no response? Thanks, Judy in Ohio

Hello, I believe I have found one of my ancestors listed online in a cemetary in Marshall County, W Va. The cemetary is St. Martin's Catholic Cemetary. It is on the Marshall County, W Va Gen page. It says the cemetary is located in Cameron. The people I have discovered are Frederick Felgar 1872-1955 and his wife Daisy E. 1876-1966. I would like to eventually obtain death records for this couple. Can anyone tell me where to start? This is the only info I have concerning this couple. Also, Frederick was born in PA. They had at least one son there also. Thank you so much for your time!

In a message dated 9/7/00 8:40:46 PM Eastern Daylight Time, bgoodman@kvinet.com writes: > ROBERT BELCHERS wife NANCY was in fact a Blankenship , not a BISHOP, i > suspicion that she may have been married to a BISHOP before marrying my G GF > ROBERT BELCHER..and also that she was born in 1850 not 1858, she was the > daughter of Jesse BLANKENSHIP and Hannah Allen The last time you wrote you said she was also married to John Noe, is that still the case? Who is Robert Belchers father? thanks Descendants of Nancy Blankenship 1 Nancy Blankenship b: 1850 . +Mister Bishop Father: Mother: *2nd Husband of Nancy Blankenship: . +John Noe Father: Mother: *3rd Husband of Nancy Blankenship: . +Robert Belcher m: 11 March 1886 in Wyoming Co., WV Father: Mother: Thanks for writing. Sandy in Florida Maybe I will catch up with my mail when I retire, in 2010, <grin>

Hi all, I have recently found out that ROBERT BELCHERS wife NANCY was in fact a Blankenship , not a BISHOP, i suspicion that she may have been married to a BISHOP before marrying my G GF ROBERT BELCHER..and also that she was born in 1850 not 1858, she was the daughter of Jesse and Hannah Allen Blankenship...She and Robert Belcher were married on 3-11-1886 in Wyoming Co WV and they had four known children... 1. INDIA FELIA BELCHER born 12-24-1886 died 6-20-1926 Logan Co WV married Andrew J Goodman Jr 12-29-1907 Wyo Co WV... 2. SUSAN BROOKE BELCHER (BROOKIE) born abt 1890-93, married 1st WM A Vaughn, 2nd HANNIBAL BLANKENSHIP SR, 3rd WM MATNEY....she died in 1963-64 Mingo Co WV 3. RECORD BELCHER born abt 1891 died unknown(have nothing on this child after 1900... 4. VIDA BELCHER born 1894 died after 1964 married 1st ?? CLINE 2nd MELVIN MOUNTS in Mingo Co WV(bielieve her 1st husband may have been EPP CLINE) Anyone with information on any of these people , Please contact me at bgoodman@kvinet.com Thanks for your time and paitience... Bea Goodman

Is there away I can find out the info or law regarding foster care say between 1920-1940 in the state of West Virginia. Also does anyone know if it was common practice back then that one mother had children and every child was place in the same faster care from the time if birth untill 18 years of age. And for the mother to visit often. We are talking about 7 children. Thanks in advance Kim

Ooops, I made a typo in typing out the "families" part of the first link (it doesn't work when spelled "fmailies" )on the TOP10 Alert, Northern Neck Families message I sent. It should read: http://www.northernneckfamilies.com Thanks. ___________________________________ Virginia Hamrick Association of Archival Transcribers mailto:virginiah@reflexnet.net http://www.northernneckfamilies.com