Here's my reply to the original message. I'm fairly confidant that my Thomas family was very English/Welsh in origins; but the family married the Scotts Irish neighbors in SW Va. I have also believed my Thomas family to be Welsh, but not much to go on. My branch settled in Maryland in the late 1600's at Lord Baltimore's catholic colony. They then migrated down the Valley of Virginia in the late 1700's and ended up in the Bristol, Va./ Washington County area where they married into the Hamilton, Cox, Bell, and Hawkins families -- now that's a Scotts Irish connection. So, maybe you'll find the Scotts Irish in the marriages.