His name was Notley Anderson - not Nodley

[L Verge]

I respond that they have to give me the name of the earliest family member that they know to be on the Surratt tree and any state in which they were known to live. There is a very limited edition book that was privately published in 1980 by Dr. and Mrs. Norman Sarratt of Capitola, California. They had traced the lineage back to France to an area near the border between France and Spain in the Pyrennes Mountains. There are still families there and geographical locations bearing forms of the name. I believe the town of Montserratt figured into the Olympics a number of years ago?

The French officials even told them that the name means "serrated" as in jagged like the mountain rims. They also said that both the spelling Sarratt and Surratt were Anglicized versions of the correct French spelling "Serratt." Supposedly, in French, the letter "u" would not have been used without a preceding "e." We have actually found at least seven different spellings of the name ranging from Ceratt, to Serat, Sarat, and others

The first record of the name in America is in a will of 1715 for an Alphonsus Surratt here in Southern Maryland. It is believed that the family was French Huguenots and may have escaped persecution via Nova Scotia and down the coast. By the mid-1700s, at least one branch of the family began migrating towards better farmland - one to North Carolina and another to Washington, Pennsylvania, and then across the Ohio River Valley. The North Carolina branch then migrated through the Cumberland Gap region into Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas and so forth. That's where my asking for states that might be in a particular family's history comes in handy.

Luckily, Dr. Norman and Laura indexed their book very well and also divided it into state chapters. Most of the time, the connections that I am able to make are from the North Carolina branch. One part of that line that I have learned a lot from is that they were slaveholders and that their former slaves took the name upon gaining freedom. I have been able to help about a half-dozen African Americans who have visited Surratt House looking for some hints as to where to start their own search.

Unfortunately, the Sarratts died shortly after publishing the book and within a year of each other. We never had any contact with their heirs and have no idea what happened to their notes. Only 500 copies were printed. I have my personal copy chained to my desk...