Elaine, These census records can certainly present inconsistencies. I think that David and Lewis (his candidate father) never wandered too far from the Mecklenburg area. In perusing my research on David Poythress I find him first on the 1840 census as "David Portress" in Mecklenburg, VA along with Lewis and James. He appears next on the 1850 Mecklenburg, VA census and here lists his birthplace as VA. In the 1860 NC census he is living in Warren Co. NC and lists his birthplace as Mecklenburg, VA. And this interesting portion of a letter written by Carl H. Poythress to his niece Annie G. Poythress Shamburger, dated March 1, 1967: "My father [James Speed Poythress] was born near Petersburg, Virginia, Sept. 24, 1829 -he came South in the mid-forties to fight in the Mexican war; on returning to Virginia he passed through the black-belt of Alabama, and saw the richness of the soil that a few years later he returned to that territory and settled near Greensboro, Alabama." "My father's people all lived in Virginia; he [James Speed] had a half-brother named Charlie Poythress and he had a son named James who came to Meridian and lived with us a few months, tried to railroad but didn't like it so returned to Virginia; he is the only one of my father's family that we ever met." Hope this helps. Best, Barbara (BPW)