Some of this version well could be. However, without digging back into research that I haven't much looked at since 1998, I believe Thomas Westall is found in the 1810 census in North Carolina, probably Buncombe County. There also are some property records in Buncombe County. There is no indication that he changed his name in Tennessee. I also have encountered the difficulty of the William McGillis Westall name. It appears from my research that William B. Westall somehow wound up as William M. Westall on his tombstone. I always suspected that he, like his father (who fled to Tennessee), had sort of given up the Brittain connection. Minor name changes were a common thing back in those early years. I've always figured the McGillis somehow came down in Thomas's ancestry, perhaps his mother's, and might have been his own middle name. In any case, I have a pretty good list of the children of William Brittain Westall, including an illegitimate first child spawned during his early traveling salesman years. My list agrees with a number of family researchers with whom I corresponded over the years (plus other sources). I have six children (plus the illegitimate daughter) by his first wife and 14 children by his (migawd! that poor woman) second wife (with a possibility of one more, by one account). However, nowhere among the many children on this list do Ifind an Aura Belle who would have been your grandmother. According to my information, you also would be ancient by now, with a grandmother born some time between 1828 and 1859 (the birth dates I have for Wm. B.'s legitimate children). I believe that author Thomas Wolfe (would have to check my own book) referred to his ancestor Thomas Westall from Winchester, Virginia. Regards, Tom -- Tom Camfield 538 Calhoun St. Port Townsend WA 98368 From: "Les Brown" <lesbrown@carolina.rr.com> Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2006 16:48:12 -0400 To: <camfield@olympus.net> Subject: Westall Tom, Have you run down any new informaton about the early geneology of Thomas Westall? It was my understanding that he was originally named William McGillis Westall who came from the UK and began his family in Yancey Co. NC. He then left his first wife who last name was Brittain. He supposedly went to Tenn., changed his name to Thomas, married again and then went on to Texas. All I know for sure is that my grandmother, Aura Belle Westall was one of the children of William Brittain Westall from Yancey Co. NC. All indications are that he was named for his (Brittain) mother, wife of Wm. McGillis Westall, (Aka Thomas). Les Brown