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 To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html