Thanks, Brian, for that additional information. When we moved to Nellysford in 1998, we lived in an old house known as "the Coleman House" for a year and a half while we were building our own house. The original part of this house was supposedly built in 1732, and was a "two over two" log house made of huge chestnut trees. The "kitchen" was in the basement. They later added a "new addition", in 1812! This included a larger kitchen, which had a "slave door" that led to the back yard and possibly slave quarters and the spring down at the bottom of the hill. There were a lot of Colemans in the Rockfish Valley back then so I don't know if this was where Aunt Maria Tombs lived and worked or not, but it just could have been the place.

I'll take a look at Sharp's diary and see if there is anything else there. Another person he collected from in Nellysford was a man named "Dol (Adolphus) Small". And would you believe that we have a Dol Small living here today, a direct descendent with all kinds of relatives.

I think it's great that you guys are doing this program. There is so much rich material in Sharp's Appalachian collection and it needs to be revitalized.