Peggy: Congratulations on your newly found counties to work in and your excellent discoveries. I am NOT a Davis descendant, but maybe I can help you with some general information. I am a descendant of the old Carroll, Booth and Paul familes of Shelby County, Texas. One of our Carroll ladies (Esther Elizabeth) married Caleb L. Davis of this family. In an attempt to progress to and list all of the modern day descendants of Thomas and Mary Ann Carroll, parents of Esther Elizabeth, on a project with my co-worker and cousin, Bill Carroll, a well known Shelby County researcher, the lot of the draw gave me the job of finding any DAVIS descendants of Esther Elizabeth Carroll and Caleb L. Davis. To do this, I had to get an understanding of the Davis family. I would suggest to you that, unless you are close to Panola County that you order EVERYTHING that you can afford from the LDS and read it all. You have hit the mother lode with a county with excellent records, and a strong and large family which owned a lot of property; there is MUCH there. When you cover all of that, I would then go back to Panola C. and get to be good friends with Sue Grafton, the County Clerk there. She is a good one and has been there at least since the early 80's. Then, read all of the the original loose papers (after reading the probate book references on LDS films) of the estates. The Davises are there. Excuse me for telling you something you probably know. You will need to do this to sort out the several people named Nathan Davis, Abijah Davis, Thomas Davis and so on. This is a large group. In addition to this, there is another Davis family in the county which does not seem to be contemporary relatives of Martin Fletcher Davis' group. Here are your general clues, as I know it: The patriarch of the family was Nathan Davis (c.1768 to 18 Jan.1857), married to Jane ????, (born c. 1771). Their children were: not in order 1. Abijah Davis 2. Harrison Davis 3. Nathan Davis (father of Martin Fletcher Davis) 4. Margaret Davis (Wooten) 5. Susannah Davis (Wooten) 6. Jane Davis (Lindsey or Lindsey) Nathan Davis, father of Martin Fletcher Davis, is generally referred to as 'Jr.' until the late 1850s. As you say, he was married to Susannah Fletcher. Their children that I know of were: 1. Louisa Davis, married to David M. Wilson 2. Margaret Ann Davis, married to James C. Wilson 3. Nancy Davis, married to William Wilson 4. Susan Frances Davis 5. Martin Fletcher Davis 6. Mary Jane Davis 7. Harrison E. Davis 8. Sarah W. Davis I think that this is mentioned in I/215, but I am not sure if this is a deed or estate book. After Susannah's death, Nathan (Jr.) married Elizabeth ???...should be on record in Panola. Your ancestor, Nathan Davis (Jr.) can be seen in FINAL ESTATES (Panola County's name for early probate record settlements, no longer used), book F, p.354, 19 Feb. 1872, regarding probate 702 where he acts as the administrator of the estate of Mary A. Fletcher. Mary A. Fletcher was formerly Mary Ainsley, second wife and widow of Caleb L. Davis, and later married to 'Fletcher'. He can also be seen in District Court Case 1948, found in the District Clerk's office. in the case of Abijah D. Davis, et.al. vs. Nathan Davis, et.al. beginnning 23 May 1871. These are only some examples. More importantly, in regard to the migration of the Davis family, if my memory serves me, Nathan Davis (c. 1768-c.1857) was listed in Mr. J.B. Sanders' book on masonry in Shelby County, TX with the exact lodge that he transferred from in Illinois. This would give you the exact location of his residence in Illinois. Get a Shelby Co. lookup helper for this. >From Illinois, he most likely went to Saline County, Arkansas. Here, at least Abijah Davis, his son and brother to Nathan Davis, Jr. (married to Susannah Fletcher) first encountered the Carroll family, later of Shelby County, Texas. I think several of the family were there if not Nathan Sr. In Texas, he first went to San Augustine County, I think in the 1830's and he is documented in some book (the name eludes me) as one of the first settlers in that part of the county. From there, he moved up to Shelby County and later to Panola County with a lot of his family with him. If you check the land patents in these counties, you will see a trail. His nephew was Oran Milo(?) Roberts, a lawyer, a colonel in the confederacy and finally governer of Texas. Nathan Davis (Sr.) credited himself with convincing O.M. Roberts to come to Texas. In Panola County District Court Case 222, Harrison Davis vs. Rigdon Heath, one of the attornies is Oran Roberts and the opposing attorney is James Pinckney Henderson, also later a governor of Texas. Obviously influenced by all of this was Thomas Carroll Davis, a well known judge in Shelby County who grew up with the Panola County Davises. So you have here another family name connected with Nathan Davis (Sr.)--Roberts. It may pay you to look at FINAL ESTATES, book F, p,p. 578-581, regarding probate 780. In this one, Abijah D. Davis, son of Caleb L. Davis and Esther Elizabeth Carroll Davis acts as guardian of some Wooten children (who are his cousins). I do not have their names. In an inventory filed 27 August 1874, there is land listed as being held by the Wooten family in: HENDERSON COUNTY, TEXAS, you original county research place. A final important clue for you is this: In FINAL ESTATES book D, p81, etc, in 1858, is more on the Roberts connection but with a connection to Lewis. Margaret Roberts received 1/2 (?) of the Elizabeth Lewis Survey. In Deeds ??, book C, page 183, it is stated that Elizabeth Lewis was the grandmother of Harrison Davis. As stated before, Harrison Davis was proved in FINAL ESTATES, book D, p. 76 as being a brother to your Nathan Davis, Jr. If they are all children of the same mother, this gives you a clue to one line in the next level. I hope that this helps you. Sincerely, Tony Lanagan