Re: Catts/Cotts, Virginia late 1600's

I am at school now, so I don't have my printed information with me.I also may be changing my service provider, so my e-mail address may change, but it is good for now.
A John Catts sold 400 acres of land at Hatfield Chase, England, in 1635 and moved to Virginia.Apparently, some other family members left England and went to Holland.My great-great-great-great-grandfather, who was born in 1690, came to America in the 1700s (1748 I think) and settled in Maryland.The family story says we were Quakers and left England to escape the religious persecution.In the 1700s, there is a real mixture of the Catts families in Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware.A lot of the names were the same, so I assume and have been told they were in fact related.Some decended from John and some decended from Michael.Someone in the family owned a farm in or near Alexandria, Virginia.Although my great-great-grandfather died in Baltimore, Maryland, my great-grandfather and grandfather were born in Virginia.My branch of the family came to Missouri in the early 1800s and settled near Mount Vernon.Before the Civil War, they sent the boys back to Virginia for the academy and the girls to Virginia for finishing school.My great-grandfather was the Treasurer of Lawrence County when the Civil War broke out.After marching off as a drummer boy in 1863, my grandfather, William Tarr Catts, apparently went back to Virginia.When he returned to Missouri in the 1880s, he bought land, rode on horseback to give music lessons, and raised children and strawberries.He was President of the Strawberry Association and a charter member of the Mount Vernon Band.He was a very quiet man and said very little about his past or anything else.When he did speak, he had something to say.In his old age after he had stopped playing his wind instruments, while attending a band concert which played John Phillip Souza music, he off-handedly commented, "I played with Souza before he was anybody."My grandfather was born in 1849 and Souza was born in 1854, so they were near the same age.If my grandfather went back to Alexandria, they were in the same area.In the 1830s, another part of the family settled in Alabama near Pleasant Hill.One of their decendants became governor of Florida in 1919.Although the Catts family is scattered all over the country now, as far as I know, we can all trace our heritage back to Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, and evidently to the John who arrived in the mid-1630s or to Michael who arrived in the 1700s.My ancestry goes as follows: Clarence William Lee Catts (me), Clarence Herman Catts (my father), William Tarr Catts (my grandfather), George Neal Catts (my great-grandfather), John Catts (GG-GF), Michael Catts (GGG-GF), and Michael Catts (GGGG-GF).If anyone has information on the Michael Catts born in 1690 who came to America from Holland, I'd like to receive it.If the family story is accurate, information on Michael's father and grandfather should lead us back to England or Scotland.I have a lot of information which I obtained back in the 1960s.If the copies are still readable, I'll have to look them up and share some of the details.Col. Gordon Rives Catts did a lot of research and submitted his findings to the Alabama archives.Erwin Catts of Atlanta, Georgia, used to have a lot of family information.I don't know if it was passed to his son and grandson or not.At this time, I really don't have much time to dig into the informaion I have, but now that I know there is a web site for the family information, I'll have to look for some time to dig through my information and share it.