What's a Traditional Appalachian Dulcimore?

So I just read over all our posts on this thread and I want to verify a few things, and clear up a few things:
The qualifications on the original post is what we believe a traditional Appalachian Dulcimore MUST have to qualify under our terms as being traditional. NOT to be a replica. I think in the earlier comments some folks might have been mistaking our definition of traditional as meaning a replica.

For instance: if you're making a replica of a Thomas dulcimore and the original had feet, well, you better add feet if you're making a replica. But if it didn't have feet, it would still qualify as a traditional piece.
Same as my Honaker pattern........ it has a zither pin head, no strum hollow, and no foot. But I wasn't building it as a replica. The original had a strum hollow, wood pegs and a single foot near the peghead. Mine isn't a replica but it still qualifies as a traditional piece.

There's lot's of regional stuff that don't carry over from region to region.
Most early Virginia pieces had 4 strings.
Most other regions had 3.
Most Kentucky dulcimores had feet.
About 1/2 of the early Virginia dulcimores had feet.
A lot of dulcimores from surrounding areas placed the bridge/saddle very near the tailpiece. But Virginia dulcimores generally had the bridge a few inches from the tailpiece.

So what we were doing was coming up with a list of characteristics that crossed and included all of the various early pieces.

But you'll notice I started several new regional threads: Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, West Virginia......... that's where you need to post your regional characteristics at. And if you want, you can even post Replica information in those categories. Remember, we don't want to keep this just to ourselves, we need to pass it on for future generations!