To those Interested: Variations from the spelling of the surname as Davenport, such as Devenport, Deavenport, etc, are generally unique to Southern lines and reflect several generations of illiteracy in the family, and when literacy returned to accepting a spelling that some lawyer, postal clerk, court office clerk, or notary public put on a document. I have found no spelling variations among the Davenports of Northern lines. I recall visiting with a Devenport from Oklahoma at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City ten or so year ago. He told me that he had no knowledge of the family name ever being anything but Devenport, that his people had settled Oklahoma at the time of the Land Rush from Alabama. John Scott Davenport Holmdel, NJ