okay so this one was fun - gotta love the simple act of getting your terminology right in order to pose the correct questions. The solution here is that I was looking for a WPF Lookup Combobox - absolutely everything is explained here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vbasic/cc788742.aspx

compliments of my hero, Beth Massi.

the code is attached for my solution in particular.....

here is at the class level:
Code:
Private customerdata As New CustomerDataSet
Private customer_type_data As New Customer_TypeDataSet
Private tacust As New CustomerDataSetTableAdapters.CustomerTableAdapter
Private tamanager As New CustomerDataSetTableAdapters.TableAdapterManager
Private Customer_Type_Lookup As New Customer_TypeDataSet.Customer_TypeDataTable

and at the window loaded level:

Code:
Dim tacustomer_type_lookup As New Customer_TypeDataSetTableAdapters.Customer_TypeTableAdapter

tacustomer_type_lookup.Fill(Me.Customer_Type_Lookup)
Me.tacust.Fill(Me.customerdata.Customer)
        Me.tamanager.CustomerTableAdapter = tacust
Me.DataContext = Me.customerdata.Customer
Me.cbCustomerType.ItemsSource = Me.Customer_Type_Lookup
and finally the correct xaml:

Code:
<ComboBox Grid.Row="1" Height="23" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="361,70,0,0" Name="cbCustomerType" 
                  VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="300" IsEnabled="False" IsReadOnly="True" 
                  DisplayMemberPath ="Customer_Type" 
                  SelectedValue="{Binding Path=Customer_Type}"
                  SelectedValuePath="Customer_Type"/>
to my knowledge, the above code will reproduce the exact same thing as a winforms developer setting the datasource of a combobox to one table, then setting the databinding Text property to another. Also, keep in mind that in both my customer table and my customer_type table, the field name was the same, so in your case, if they are different, the xaml would need to reflect the displaymemberpath and the SelectedValuePath as the field name in the lookup table (the winforms datasource) and the SelectedValue would need to be the field name in the Table you are browsing (the winforms databindings text property)

enjoy :-)

Thanks to Beth Massi and her contributions to us VB newbies