Thank you for the info re the various Corneliuses (Cornelii?) and Absaloms. Also for the information as to Absalom not necessarily being directly French. Regarding our line's origins, my greatgrandmother (Virgi Downing Dealey) told my aunt Gloria that she had one grandmother who was Irish (O'Hara/O'Harrow) and one who was "Dutch". Her other grandmother was Charity Mira Autrey m. Thomas Jefferson Downing. Virgi could have meant Dutch as in Holland (another place Protestants fled to) or Deutsch/German as in Pennsylvania "Dutch". Ties between England and Germany were very strong; George III was, I believe, the first of the England's Hanoverian Kings to speak English. A German/English origin might explain the Loyalist stance. If Absalom were the emmigrant, Charity would have only been two generations from her "origins" and probably knew her grandfather. We have been puzzling over this reference. By the way, Virgi also said that Charity was born in Georgia, not Alabama.