This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/ncB.2ACE/1477.1 Message Board Post: DNA testing is a new tool used by some genealogists and generally is considered relaible. If one believes Family Tree DNA, their 37 marker test would show the splits in a family line and would probably indicate if Benjamin Risher, Sr. or a brother was a common ancestor. http://www.familytreedna.com/37.html The Mississippi question is not the only Colleton County Risher mystery,. Some Risher researchers believe that Micahel Raysor, Sr. was related to Benjamin, a cousin, maybe a brother. On the other hand, some like Pat Sabin feel the Raysors were a diiferent line and not related to the Rishers until Micahel Raysor, Jr. married Eleanor Risher, Ben's daughter. Were there two Rishers shown in the 1790 St Bartholomew, Charleston District Census as heads of hosuehold or five as shown in your posting? On page 560, did the census taker write estate of Risher as shown in your posting or estate of Fisher as shown in a transcribbed version? In looking at the written version, one notices the census taker wrote distinct "R's" especilly when it was used as the first letter of a name. Also, on the same page we find John Hoff, the "f's" in Hoff look like the first name of the surname in question. More than likely he wrote estate of Fisher. On page 562, the transcribbed version does not show a Thomas Risher or a John Risher. There is a Thomas Millar and John Millar. In looking at the handwritten version , one can see how Millar might look like Risher. Again comparing the census taker's writting the surname was more than likely Millar not Risher How relaible was the testimony of grandchildren and others used as sources by the writer of the earlier Stokes book? The Bryans used the tesimony of ancestors in their CEMETERIES OF UPPER COLLETON COUNTY, a book full of misinformation. More recently, Dr. J. J. Stokes wrote HENRY STOKES OF COLLETON COUNTY. Like the Bryans he relied on the statements of individuals and apparently did not verify the accuracy of his information. His book also has a number of errors. The one that I find most appalling is on page 224. He gives the impression that Henry Allen Williams and his wife Martha Anne Risher had only one daughter, Sarah Caroline Williams. Actually, there were at least 10 children including my grandfather Henry Bass Williams. One can come to differenrt conclusions when looking at the 1790 census. Mine is there were only two Rishers shown as heads of household: Benjamin Risher and his brother Richard. We don't even know if Richard was married and had children. To the best of my knowledge no one has claimed Richard as an ancestor. Possibly he was the father of Samuel, Mary, and Sarah Risher.