Joanne, (1) I do not wish to debunk all professional researchers as most are excellent and provide great value for the almost pittance they ask for their services. This was really a problem that happened because of several bad apples in the late 1800s and early 20th century when some "fat cat" wanted to get his pedigree done and hired out one of these agencies to do it for him. They fabricated pedigrees like you would not believe and even fabricated "proofs". Many of these vanity genealogies have wended their way into libraries and other repositories and newcomers find them and treat them as real and perpetuate the fraud. It is about the same level as a computer virus. I do not know that your source is such without seeing the data, but it is obvious that they were unaware of all of the data available. We are so fortunate to have today a wealth of information easily available to us that is reliable, based on conscientious researchers, that we can sometimes not realize how difficult it was to do family history even 50 years ago. Most people are not aware that the census microfilms are less than 50 years old. Before that people had to go to Washington and ask permission to thumb through the actual books. Soon, we will be access all of the census images at home on our computers. (2) I found the genealogy of the "other" Davidson family among my files and there are in fact 4 Richmond Davidsons in that family, one of who was killed in the Civil War. The one who is likely your ancestor does not have any family documented for him so you will get to contribute a whole new line. (3) That Richmond/Richman Davidson's ancestry is fairly well documented. See http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~genea/Dtn1850.html and look for the records for Dyer county and you will see the transcription of the 1850 census where he is included along with his parents and siblings. along with a contact person for that family. There is an R. Davidson in the 1860 Dyer Co., census that may be him, but we would need to know more about him. The following genealogy on WorldConnect has him and seems to follow the accepted ancestry for him based on today's research. http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jdwoodward&id=I13794 But I suspect that the contact on the census pages has more up to date data on the family. (4) The problem comes in the research your aunt was given going backward from Richmond. The Mary Morrison reference is inaccurate as I described in a previous note. They have also confused two Samuel Davidsons. Maj. William's twin brother Samuel was killed in 1784, but the Capt. Samuel was a different Samuel. Probably... And this is a rub... Samuel's whole history is somewhat cloudy. You may have some records that could be attributed to this Samuel. (5) As to your grandfather's Perry - that line is a little suspicious - seems to be several generations skipped. Perry looks like he was from a Clay Co., KY, Davidson family. That Perry had a son John in 1853. I do not have much data on that family but I will bet someone on this list does. Fortunately, I have not had to deal with much research on KY Davidsons. Except to say that it is my understanding that the most common migration route to KY was through VA, not NC/TN, so that a VA Davidson family were likely ancestors. john. At 11:11 AM 2001-08-05 -0400, you wrote: >I'm sure you are correct about research-for-profit. My name is Joanne >Davidson Saliby and I live in WA state. I have this 15 page document from my >aunt. Some of the info comes from family bibles, military records and >pension records. It concerns my grandmother's family (Laura Frances >(Fannie)Davidson, b. 9/22/1877 and d. 3/18/1973. Her father was Richmon >(Richman, Richmond) Davidson...he was said to be descended from a John who >married Mary Morrison. She was already a widow with one son. I wish there >were a way to pass around this document without trying to enter the whole >thing on the Net. There are several references to Samuel as a Capt. in the >Revolution, with his company. There are references to military records. His >tombstone is in western N.C. where he was one of the first white settlers and >ws killed by Cherokees in 1784. > >My grandfather comes from another John, b. about 1679 in Scotland. He went >to Ulster and then to PA. His wife was Jane.. They had Wm, 1700, who had >Samuel, 1725, who had Daniel, 1752, who had John, 1777, who had James, 1801, > who had Perry (my gggfather) 1828,who had John Boone, 1854, who had James >Solomon, 11/7/74-1/8/1960 who had James Harold 9/8/1903-Jan ?, 1963, who had >me.9/1/31. This is the info I have; as to it's accuracy, I cannot be sure of >it all, of course. If any of this helps, great. Feel free to email me >directly if you like. > >Most of this I have got from other related Davidsons....back through Perry I >got from my aunt (my father's sister). > >Joanne Davidson Saliby > > >==== DAVIDSON Mailing List ==== >DAVIDSON - DAVISON - DAVISSON Web Page >http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~genea/davidson.html