I descend from Jesse Stephens, born about 1818 in Kentucky, who first appears in the late 1830's in Hancock County, KY. I know of several other researchers of this line who also have Jesse as their brick wall. Some believe that Jesse's father may have been Allen Stephens. I now have an exact match with another Stephens male on a 25-marker DNA test. This means that he and I share a common ancestor with a 50% likelihood of that common ancestor being within the last seven generations, I believe. Jesse is four generations before me. I won't post the other testee's name or information here. His line is apparently descended from Thomas Vant Stephens, born about 1732 in Virginia. Thomas Vant Stephens had a son, Thomas Alexander Stephens, who moved to Allen County, KY and thence to Washington Co., Missouri and on to Dent Co., MO. There is a message on the Stephens forum at Ancestry/Rootsweb which discusses this family. Do a search on the Stephens board for Vant and this message of November 28, 2000 will appear. This DNA information obviously doesn't answer the question of Jesse's parentage, but it is a start! Researchers of this line can now narrow the number of Stephens families to check. If anyone has information on Thomas Vant Stephens or his family, such as his father, brothers, sons, etc., please post this information. Somehow and somewhere, Jesse is related to this family. I've now upgraded to a 37-marker DNA test, and it should provide more precise information. I'll post the results when I get them. I would encourage all Stephens males to have genealogy DNA testing. Dick Stephens