While reviewing the Hitt archives on Rootsweb for any leads, I stumbled across a throwaway line by Rhita Reynolds that she had been unable to trace the ancestry of James Allen Hitt but that "He is thought to be the son of William Hitt and his wife Haney UNKNOWN who lived in Greenville County , SC....It is believed that this William Hitt....is the son of Peter Hitt of Greenville, Co., SC. On the off-chance that there might be something there, I looked up William Hitt in the 1860 census (p. 500, Greenville District) There he was age 75, farmer -- but no connection to James Allen Hitt apparent. But wait, also on page 500 just a few houses away was a James A. Hill--farmer -- age 38 (suspiciously similar to what James A Hitt's age would have been, with wife Elender age 31 (the same as Elender Hitt's everywhere except her tombstone) with children James M. age 8, George age 5, and John T.age 3, also suspiciously like James Allen Hitt's children James Madison (or Monroe) Hitt (mother Sarah), George R. Hitt, and John Thomas Hitt (the latter two are born of Elender Duncan Hitt). So, I propose that James A. Hill was actually James A. Hitt (the enumerator just didn't cross his tees) and that he was living very near his ancient father William Hitt and helping him farm. Supporting this proposition is the fact that no James A. Hill can be found in the SC census indices of 1850 or 1870. If this proposition is true then William was born abt 1785 presumably the son of the Peter Hitt that migrated to Greenville SC from Halifax VA. Any comments? It certainly helps me out. Regards, Eric