This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Shelton Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/wNHBAIB/3000.1.1 Message Board Post: Hildred, Thank you for the response. Being a mason myself and knowing that masonry has a tendancy to run in families, I'm trying to find a link to my line. The oldest proven member of my line is Jessee Shelton of the "The Descendants of Jessee Shelton" book by Cecil and Louise Shelton. It is beleived that Jessee's parents were Steven W. Shelton and Rhoda Green, but the only document to that end is a rather vague note in the minute book of a small church in Bedford County, TN. Stephen W. was born abt 1760 in VA. Jessee had a significant amount of land in Bedford and Giles County, TN (Stephen W is buried in Giles County). The authors of the book reference much of the "bad" information from the Whittaker book for generations previous to Jessee and note that none of it has documentation. My thought is that if Steven W. is Jessee's father and from VA that it is more likely that the family ties to one of the VA lines. I don't know much about the Ralph Shelton lines, but would be interested to see if any possible links can be made to Jessee or Stephen W. Matt