Elaine, thanks so much for giving the citations of the messages you had seen in the Poythress-List Archives. It makes it much easier to figure out which Thomas M, etc, to be able to read thru them again. In re-reading both the messages, it seems that the clearest statement on the subject was the paragraph I'll quote below, which was in the message "Re: Edward Poythress etc." on 18 Feb 1999, by LPB (or Lyn Poythress Baird). The pertinent Thomas you were asking about -- Thomas M. Poythress & his wife Lucy Thomas -- are direct ancestors of Lyn's. He & his Mom have done extensive research on that family. And the marriage you mentioned in posing your question, the marriage of Richard Poythress to Rosa Benton, is one of several Poythress marriages that Sarah Royster Poythress had found in a research trip to the Courthouse in "Boydton, Mecklenburg [County], Va yesterday [Sarah's message was dated Sat, 13 Feb 1999] ...I found and copied... [from] one of the large marriage books they have at the courthouse," which Sarah listed as: ">07 Jan 1880 (Hope I have right date on this one) Richard Poythress, 24, single, Mecklenburg Co. s/o Thomas and L. Poythress to Rosa A. Benton, 21 single, Mecklenburg, Co. d/o L. and C.E. Benton. J.M. Benton" By the way, in case it isn't clear to anyone, in that record the "s/o" means "son of" and the "d/o" means "daughter of" and the name added at the end of the record is the name of the minister, from the context of the first marriage Sarah had listed in her message. Thus I reckon the others of us just took it as "Yes, this Richard who married Rosa Benton is the son of Thomas M. Poythress & his wife Lucy Thomas" when LPB said in that 18 Feb 1999 message that you found: " -This Richard Poythress is also the son of my Thomas M. Poythress. This is shown by the marriage record and also by deeds around the settlement of the TMP estate. We think he might be the child identified as Peter in the 1870 census. Some of his descendants still live in the area." BPN