As with any major genealogy of this breadth and depth, much credit for hard work, analysis and collaboration belongs to others. Blessed with so many ancestors leaving civil and religious record trails, I relied on others' research when solidly sourced and concentrated on doing new and unique research myself. Thus, I compiled this family history with the help of many other fellow family researchers and I am most indebted to their hard work. Key information from many others was very helpful in completing my work, and I endeavored to ensure every person whose research I used is annotated as a source. If I have mistakenly not credited another researcher in my sources, I would appreciate knowing so that I can remedy that. 

Much credit for the breadth and depth of my maternal family history goes to others who worked diligently in original records, especially my triple cousin Moody Kellan Miles III and my cousins Sabine Bohne, Janet Beall Broadbent, Alice Ament Davidson Gedge, Adelina Christine Davidson Kraft, Ellen Bailey Logan Martin, Elizabeth Harriet Perry and Rebecca Martin White. Foreign language translation and research was provided by my sister Marianne Southall Winslett.

On my paternal side over the decades I have greatly benefited from exchanges with my cousins Rita Talton Barrett, James Eulyce Dukes, Theodore Beckwith Goldmann, Thomas Huckabee, Betty Ann Winslett Nash,  Glenn Pearson, Charlie Rathbun, Janie Sue Chaffin Rawlingson, Vicki Reynolds, James R. Rolff, Robert Strong, Charles Edward Whitsett, Betty Seymour Winslett and Herschell Rutherford Winslett who shared their extensive knowledge and original records with me.

On the Schmidt side of the family, the oral genealogy provided by Claude Curtley Counts was crucial in establishing the basic framework of the Schmidt lineage and the research of Kathy Bonnell, Lorene Hilsenbeck Strano and Lynda Stewart greatly contributed to uncovering innumerable generations of ancestors. On the Murphy lineage, the bedrock was established by the research of Catherine Marie Murphy Holmes and on the Guzzi side of the family, I did the research in Italian and Latin back to 1737 in primary records.

Additionally researchers unrelated to me, discussed in my Interesting Stories section made large contributions to the success of this project. Much credit for significant research breakthroughs goes to Judith Ledbetter, a Charles City County, Virginia historian; Elaine McHale-McRey, a Fairfax County, Virginia historical librarian; and Elana Messner, an art historian focused on Virginia and Philadelphia art works.

Instrumental in my research were the published or manuscripted work of historians, researchers and academics Luke Beckerdite, Ruth Dryden, Ann L. Miller, T. Michael Miller, Moody Miles, Stratton Nottingham, Ray Rowland, Clayton Torrence, Benjamin Weisiger and Ralph Whitelaw. Equally important was the support of several historians from George Mason's Gunston Hall plantation and Christine Meadows from George Washington's Mount Vernon plantation. My outstanding and patient DNA mentors were paternal cousins James Eulyce Dukes and Christopher Sims.

No one owns history or facts. Copyrights do not apply to public domain materials; facts such as names, births, marriages and deaths; hypotheses and concepts; and government-created records such as military, census and social security documents. Copyrights do apply in 2019 to some non-government materials published after 1923, depending on their current status. I believe my limited use of any published materials constitutes fair use under the copyright laws. Where copyrighted materials are quoted, permission was granted for their use and is so noted. 

With their permission I have used and cited material extensively from three websites of our cousins Moody Miles with MilesFiles, Alice Gedge with Our Research which links back into our German lines; and Kathy Bonnell with Church Records from Goeppingen, Wuerttemberg, Germany and from a series of family genealogy books by Ray Rowland. The three respective websites should be viewed in their entirety through the links in my sources because the websites provide much more detail I did not use. Alice GedgeChristine Kraftand Kathy Bonnell researched original German records; Moody Miles focuses on the Eastern Shore of Virginia before 1850 and his database is constantly under change, so my data may not always be synched with his. If I failed to acknowledge proprietary research, please let me know so I can add source data.