Hi Dave, You mentioned the "surnames Beaton and Bethune....who were quite prominent in old Stewart, Humphreys, Houston and Benton Counties........are the same.....pronounced ...bee-toon'......." Have you ever heard of the surname BETHANY being an Anglicized version of those names. I have a Charles Homer BETHANY who was in Benton Co., TN from the mid-1840's to the mid-1860's. He migrated from Lincoln Co., TN or possibly AL. His wife, Margaret Couch Williams, died about 1860 in Benton Co. and he married Martha Angelina Pierce in Henry Co. July 8, 1861. I have records of BETHANY's in AL, GA, MS, SC, & NC from the 1730s to the present and all during that period. But I cannot find any documented connections between them & C. H. Any thoughts on whether this could be a distant relative of your Beatons or Bethunes? It is believed that the BETHANYs were also of Scottish descent. Thanks, Jean Cloke