Dear Dodson cousins, I have been a member of this list for almost a year now and have had not any luck finding anything on my Dodson ancestors. I see tons of data weekly about all the Dodsons back in the 1700 and early 1800', but unfortunately I can't seem to get back any further than 1853. Would someone please be so kind as to give me some hints on how to go back further? It obviously has been done by most of you. It's not that I'm totally new at this, I've trace one of my husband's and one of my lines back to the Mayflower. Nonetheless, I'm at a standstill. I seem to think that my problem might be that, unlike the New England states which have records going back quite a ways, TN and KY do not. I've been to the National Archives in Washington and found nothing much in census return more than I already knew. My living in Maine makes a trip to TN & KY a challenge. An Aunt who lived in Indiana looked for the gravesites and that's where we found the birthdate for our earliest know Dodson, i. e. James Anthony Dodson, who was in the 1880 Sumner county census with his wife Mary S.(usan Ball) and daughter Blanch. James had two brothers, Joseph & Thomas. The family grave yard is believed to be in either Westmoreland or Ula TN. James is not buried there as he moved to Warren County, KY and died there in 1907. KY has no death records before 1911! Can someone PLEASE help me. I'm desperate and frustrated. Thank-you, Gerie Dodson-Smith