Hi Shirley, Your Martin Petry is my Martin Petry. And yes, he was from Orange. John Raines is not a jr. at all. John Raines married Margaret Dooley in Rockingham whereas Martin rode into a cornfield in Elkton, pulled our Elizabeth Rains onto his horse and raced off with her. Totally interesting way to get married as she escaped her indenture. Martin had a brother who took off into Ohio after the war and went with Thomas Rains, John Rains son and his wife, Margaret Handley. They also traveled with an uncle of mine (gt++) who was a Foster. This Foster/Petry/Rains connection continued on into Indiana. I'm attempting to find any living descendant from old John Raines because I want to do a DNA test on them. That's one of my purposes for traveling to WVA in July. As to John Raines lineage pre-Rev War. That is a real challenge to figure out. The old James Raines was too old to fight in the Rev war and was the father of William Raines who was too young. John and William were well acquainted. John's daughter, Nancy Raines married William's son, John Jr. The jr. part was added because John Sr. was older than William. William named his son John Jr. and John Sr. also had a son named John. The John Jr. who married Nancy Raines is my family. I discovered this when I was in the Monroe Courthouse and looked in those manilla folders they keep loose documents in. After I took out the marriage record I shook the envelop. Out came a little piece of paper. It said, I John Raines give consent for my daughter, Nancy Raines to marry. This note delivered by the hand of my son, John, her brother. This John, son of John, is the one who married Polly Marshall in 1814. He was carrier of the note but the one she married was John, son of William. William is the son of James. William married Elizabeth Smith, d/o Jno Smith who witness a lot of the various deeds and indentures they entered into between the Raines and Smith families. I can't get these Rains men separated in the records because they just show up in military musters, court lawsuits and tax lists. The remainder of the records were burned except a few of the marriages. By the way, in Martin Petry's full marriage record, does it say who Eliz father is? I am guessing that John Sr. was her brother because both families were best friends all their lives, but that is only circumstantial evidence. If Eliz was an indentured servant, either her mother was dead or they were very poor or the father was dead. At any rate, there are many men named Raines in Rockingham and Orange. We are still sorting them out, but DNA has helped a lot. It is certain that Lawrence Raines and Reuben and William are related but are more likely cousins than brothers. If we could find John Rains descendants, then we could finish the complete picture of this family. Well, it's late and I need to get some sleep. Bye for now, Cousin Melva Wheelwright of the John and Nancy Raines line. Dean wrote: > Martin Petry born 19-Jan-1757 supposedly. Son of Matthew Peatross. > Martin was on the tax list of Orange Co.-VA 1782. John Raines Jr. was > his brother-in-law. John Raines Sr.was from Rockingham Co.VA > > > ============================== > Search Family and Local Histories for stories about your family and the > areas they lived. Over 85 million names added in the last 12 months. > Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13966/rd.ashx > >