Julia Moseley Combs published an excellent little book on the Harper family a number of years ago and this project has taken her work and expanded on it since it focused on the Harpers who married into the Moseley family. Julia, Francis, Ruth, and I have been throwing around the Harper family for years - Francis has a line but Ruth and I don't - they just intermarry so much with many of our families. The early lines never fit because the premise was - Alexander was the father and Francis Sr. was the son based on the John Kilpatrick Will. My hunch was it was reversed but that hunch proved wrong. Family tradition in Lenoir was that family was connected to the Greene family but there was no proof. The key to re-working this family has been Blaney - both the name and the two early Blaneys. It is like the name Easley, Isler etc in the Kilpatrick family - the name is so unusual that when you see it, you pretty much know there is a connection to the Dobbs Co family. The same is true with the name Blaney in the Harper family. Need to find out where it came from. The Tyson Bible states that Blaney Harper was born bc 1757. That is backed up by the fact he voted in 1779 and he served in the Revo War as an Ensign. The court case found in the newspaper gives pretty strong circumstantial evidence that Alexander also had a son Blaney, bc 1770 and the later census records back that up. Blaney Sr is assumed to be a son of Francis I but there is no proof. There is no way that the younger Blaney could be the son of the older Blaney indicating two different fathers about the same age. This is where the theory that Francis and Alexander were brothers came from and the very strong possibility that John of Lenoir was also a brother since the name Blaney is found in that family. Of Alexander's children, we are going to be able to follow his children except for Francis. I am not especially comfortable with what we have on the son Blaney but Francis is and he thinks that is his line. William, we are not sure whether he did or didn't have children. With Francis I, we are running into more problems. There is no evidence of a marriage to Elizabeth Bright. We can't figure out which Francis in the next generation was his son. We think Francis I was deceased before the 1790 Census and there is evidence that he died CA 1788 but that needs to be followed up. Francis I was in the Militia, but it is highly doubtful he was the Francis who was a Lt in the Rev. War. We don't know which of the two first cousins that was and may never know. We think, but can not prove that Francis Sr on the 1790 Census was the son of Alexander and had no children and Francis Jr was the son of Francis I. We base that on later land records but those records could be misleading because Francis I and Alexander had land that adjoined. George Miller had a daughter bc 1770 who married a Harper - we don't know who she was. There is a connection with the Vendrick family of Craven and we don't know the connection but a Francis was involved and there was a Vendrick daughter who married a Harper. I have never seen a family that the Census takers missed like the Harpers in Greene Co. There is a long list on both the 1790 and 1800 Census that were missed which really complicates working with this family. Some of these people started moving out after the Rev War and some of you with Harper connections are urged to run searches in the usual migration states on the US Archives project. Nathan of Lenoir moved to Muhlenburg Co, Ky. There was a Delaney on the 1850 Census in Coosa Co, Ala with a Hastings family (all born in NC), There was a Blaney b in 1815 in Gibson Co, Tenn (from NC) whose son moved into Ark., Ormond Harper moved to Miss with a stop in Ga. It is more than possible something can be found in these other states to point back to NC but I don't have time to do the searches. Martha