Posted on: Jackson County, WV Query Forum Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/Jackson/1728 Surname: Merical, Landfried ------------------------- You're Welcome. Correction: In that obituary quote in previous response, I misspelled Landfried--the obituary has it correctly spelled. Your first response also has it misspelled. In "Names on the Land" by Delmer Hite has this entry in his book on Jackson County, WV, place names for Merical: "Merical Run and Merical Hollow, a tributary of Grasslick Creek. Named for the Merical family who settled here after 1870." The U.S. Geological Survey is rather exact in indicating the Merical run does NOT run through Merical Hollow. A search of the two names on http://mapping.usgs.gov/www/gnis/gnisform.html shows that they are not far from each other: Merical Run Feature Type: stream State: West Virginia County: Jackson USGS 7.5' x 7.5' Map: Kenna Latitude: 384336N Longitude: 0813909W Merical Hollow Feature Type: valley State: West Virginia County: Jackson USGS 7.5' x 7.5' Map: Kenna Latitude: 384247N Longitude: 0813815W The county map issued by the WV Department of Transportation shows Merical Run on Grasslick Creek. An unlabeled stream branches off Grasslick Creek just before an abrupt turn to flow northwest at the location given for Merical Hollow. The two locations are separated at least a mile. If you use the search function at the site above you can print out two maps showing the location on (unlabeled) Grasslick Creek (the unlabeled stream is not shown). I don't know whether the USGS map would show the label for Merical Hollow but they obviously know its there. Sandra Landfried