Hello everyone.

I have an exceptionally complicated situation where I was trying to explain
(to a mathematician friend) my frustration in proving the descendants of a
neighborhood in Virginia and North Carolina possibly moved as a group to
southern Alabama.

He (the math guy) said, "Run a statistical report on the possibilities of
those surnames being common in a specific population."  Now, has anyone ever
heard of such a thing?  Is it possible?  Is it probable?  In other words, is
this too "off the wall, and out in left field" to be viable?  How many names
would one need?  How would you eliminate the most common names like Smith,
Jones, Brown, etc?

The names I am looking for are Parker, Malphrus, Godwin, Stanton, Steele,
Jernigan, Jordan, and Emmons.  Malphrus (Malpus, Malpass, etc.) daughters
married Emmons and Steele.  All of these names settled in the same community
in south Alabama, and folklore suggests they all served together in the War
of 1812, which leads me to the second part of my question.  I have company
rosters and lists of militiamen, but how does one learn where specific
companies fought?  How can one prove that Company X actually travelled to
the Mississippi Territory and fought at a specific battle?  Thanks for any
advise.

Shirley

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