Regarding earliest Madison County ancestors....I'm looking for information on my 2nd great-grandmother, Rebecca Magdalene SMITH, born April 17, 1822 in Madison County, AL, died January 6, 1892 in McKinney, TX. Her mother's surname was BLANKENSHIP. Family tradition holds that at the age of 15, Rebecca eloped with my 2nd great-grandfather, Edmund Lily ALLEN of Moscow, Fayette Co., TN: they ran off together on horseback. The marriage date is listed as December 30, 1838, in Fayette County, TN. I do not know how long Rebecca lived in Madison County...her family may have moved to Fayette County TN early in her childhood. My hope is that I'll eventually find her parents' first names. I'm more likely to hunt down BLANKENSHIPs than I am to start searching SMITHs!! Just a hunch, but the SMITH bunch may have hailed from Anson County NC. The ALLENs had intermarried with SMITHs for a couple of generations there and in VA. Yikes! Would this mean that I'm my own cousin?! Barbara Allen Ft. Worth, TX