Hello, and I guess your book is now published. Just discovered your forum postings having finally found the will of James Neill dated June 22, 1793 (Iredell County Wills - Microfilm Reel 1465-66 Page 154), which names my ancestor James Holmes, who married his daughter Mary
eill/Nail) March 4,1772 (Marriages of Rowan County, North Carolina 1753-1868. From an old Holmes family bible, their children were: Elizabeth, b. 5 May 1774; John, b. 30 Jan 1777; James, b. 5 May 1779; Cynthia, b. 16 July 1781, Mary Neill/Neal, b. 25 Sep. 1784; Phineas, b. 12 Nov. 1786 (my ancestor); Sophronia, b. 4 Mar. 1800. James Holmes owned land contiguous to some of the Neill family, according to land records. Do you have any information on this Mary Neill-James Holmes family, including burial records of James Holmes and wife Mary "Nail"? Or record of James Holmes' will? Mary pre-deceased James, I have no death date, and he later re-married an Ann Alexander Patterson (a widow). James died apparently in 1806, leaving a will record in Jackson Co., GA which lists no estate, only giving the care of daughters Mary and Sophronia to Ann Holmes. The surviving children moved to Tennessee (including Mary and Sophronia) and on from there. I very much would like to know what information you have on William Neill and wife Sarah Callender: best source dates and places for b., m., & d. of each and anything on their ancestors.
(Two of Phineas's children were '49ers to Calif. via Arkansas, and ultimately settled here along with their sister Cynthia Holmes Wallace.)
http://genforum.genealogy.com/neill/messages/676.html