Your test mode sounds as though it had real possibilities.

Let me pose a genealogical  question for you to approach.. I want to
know more about an ancestor who was ( from old scraps of paper we
found) killed in the American Revolution at the Battle of Trenton,
which was December 26, 1776.He was Lieutenant (Sir) William Herbert ,
possibly the Earl of Carnavon  & Montgomery, and there is no reference
to whether he  was a Loyalist or  a Patriot. He  was married (?) to a
Nancy(?) Venote, leaving her pregnant with Jacob Boatman Herbert, ,
from whom I can trace the family line.

What I would like in genealogical research is firmer evidence as to
the existence of this Lt. (Sir ) William, Herbert, his ancestry, and
how and when he came to the colonies.

Please   advise me what your new service can do in the above quest.

Sincerely,
Wallace W. Hankins
Severna Park, MD

This site http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mickey/christriflecopg.htm
lists a regiment that took part in the Battle of Trenton and mentions
a William Herbert.

It's unlikely that your William Herbert would have been the Earl of
Caernarvon & Montgomery. The Herberts were Earls of Pembroke &
Montgomery at the time of the Battle of Trenton (1776), and as far as
I can tell, there was not a William who held this title in the 18th
Century. Henry Herbert was created the 1st Earl of Caernarvon in 1793,
well after the battle.

The lineage for this period is as follows:
Thomas HERBERT (1656-) 8th Earl of Pembroke & 5th Earl of Montgomery
|- Henry HERBERT (1693-1750) 9th Earl of Pembroke & 6th Earl of
Montgomery
   |- Henry HERBERT (1734-1794) 10th Earl of Pembroke & 7th Earl of
Montgomery
|- William HERBERT (?-?)
   |- Henry HERBERT (-1811) 1st Earl of Caernarvon

There is, of course, the possibility of your William HERBERT being
from a collateral (or illegitimate) line of this well known family.

There's plenty more regarding this family at the following URL:
http://www.compapp.dcu.ie/~humphrys/FamTree/Herbert/8th.earl.html

The WorldConnect project carries 3 databases (two of which are
essentially the same) regarding a William Herbert who died in 1776.
The one with the most detailed notes is:
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:1350784&id=I2185
It cites a law suit "Herbert vs. Ferrell" which contains information
as to the immigration of Wm Herbert, his father, brother,
brother-in-law and other "Welsh miners". According to this, William
Herbert (sr.) signed a seven year contract in Bristol England with
Col. John Chiswell representing John Robinson & Wm. Byre to manage
their mine and smelting/refining works in the colonies.

This William's wife was Sarah Fry, whom he married in Bristol and who
outlived him. This does not preclude his having left Nancy Venote
pregnant with his child, but it does bring into question whether this
is your William.

Regarding William Herbert and whether he was a Loyalist or a Patriot,
I checked the following databases for you at http://www.ancestry.com/
:

- Old United Empire Loyalists List
- Loyalists in the American Revolution
- Loyalists and Their Times, Vol. 2
- United Empire Loyalists, Part I
- Loyalists and Their Times, Vol. 1

and he does not appear on any of them, so I suspect you would be best
looking amongst the records of Patriots.

Regards
milamba-ga