This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: robingarland25 Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.davidson/4807.1.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Hello, Thank you for your response. I am unaware of any surviving Davidson males who I might suggest for DNA testing. What I know of Thomas Davidson is that there was a likely match in a Thomas Davidson who died 1815 in New Orleans. Some have tied this Thomas to Joseph and Elizabeth Davidson, a couple known of Dickson County. This is also likely as Joseph died after Thomas and his will does list a Sarah Davidson along with his male heirs. Sarah is found on the 1830 census in Dickson and her HH entry appears consistent with those children listed in the 1830 "final installment" of the estate of Thomas Davidson. I have been most successful in tracking Howell A. Davidson and his sister, Delila Davidson Thomas, over time on census. Both consistently report being born in TN. Sarah Davidson did live into her 80s and appears to have remained in Dickson County until her death. I have no insight as to her burial place. In 1840 Sarah Davidson is listed on the Dickson County census as neighbor to Howell Davidson and to John Thomas (Delila is noted in court records to be the wife of John W. Thomas). They are all still present in 1860. Howell Calvin Thomas, son of Delila and John Thomas, lived his life in Dickson County, primarily in District 4. His sister, Eliza, married Joshua G. Estes, also appears throughout her life in the county. Another son of Delila and John, James D. (believed James Davidson Thomas per some records located), appears to have perished sometime in the mid-1870s as his wife, Luranie Anderson, remarried after this. Son Minor B. Thomas perished in prison during the civil war. Son Christopher Thomas appears to have perished sometime in his youth as he is the youngest child in the 1850 Delila Thomas HH but is no longer present in 1860. I think there was one son older than Howell Thomas but I have not been successful in identifying who that might be. I do not find Sarah Davidson as head of HH in TN in 1820 and wonder if she were not living with family. I believe the suspected father of Joseph Davidson who some report as the father of Thomas was a John Davidson who was first of NC then VA. I suspect that there are some of these lines who have DNA tested from some of what I have read. I am behind the curve as what I knew of my father's family before his death was that his grandfather was John Washington Thomas married to Elizabeth Zilphia White, their birth years and locations in TN. His father, McClain, came to Ohio in the 1920s. When we visited family in TN it was that of his aunts and uncles and I was too small to have known or remember if the father of John W. was ever discussed. I never recall discussion of the Davidson family so I can not make necessary links other than via research. Robin Garland Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.