Billie Harris - Jul 27, 2010
Carol Redd has recently joined our site and an invitation has been sent to Frank Grant. Both of them descend from individuals with different surnames whose DNAs match the line of Anderson Lewallen, Wiley Lewallen, and others, so I would officially like to welcome both of them. We're glad to have you both and hope we can help make the connections.
Carol has already been posting and I'm sure those of you who descend from Anderson will read her posts and see if you can assist her. Her surname which connects is SEXTON. In looking at what we have in Tennessee, the Sextons are neighbors of some of the Lewallens in Morgan and Scott counties. I've copied one of her postings to this site and am putting it in here for you to read because it tells about her ancestors.
Frank GRANT's DNA connects to the Anderson, Wiley, et al, line of Lewallens as well as to Carol's Sexton line. His earliest line goes back to the 1600's and I've asked for more recent information so we can see if there's a connection somewhere. Knowing that those of you who descend from Anderson have his middle name as Grant, perhaps we can find some connection with a little research.
PLEASE, let's everyone try to do what we can to help make a Sexton and a Grant connection.
Here's Carol's post in case you haven't read it:
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Carol Redd - Jul 26, 2010 Bill Crawford - thanks for this concise posting of Lewallens in Scott Co, TN 1850-1870. I am unfortunately, still only able to afford dial-up service out here in Ten Mile, TN and it makes for a very long wait to access each page of the census.
I'm new to this Lewallen group having only found out on Fri that my dad's dna tested as Lewallen, not Sexton. This was not a huge surprise, but one which I very much wanted to know definitively for quite some time. Cousins all chipped in and we ordered the test. I'm hoping those of you in this group will welcome me as a "rightful" cousin even if the circumstances aren't the stellar history we'd all like to have in our family lines.
Here's my family story which I could use your help tracking down:
John Preston Sexton was born in Sept 1859 to a Lewallen woman who "took up with" or "married" Fielding Sexton (b 1837 Morgan/Scott Co, TN) s/o William Sexton and Rhoda Griffith. I'm trying to weed thru the many Lewallens who might possibly have been parents to John Preston. Until now, the story only said his mother was a Lewallen. It didn't say whether she was born a Lewallen or married a Lewallen. Now, the dna tells us that regardless of what his mother's last name was, his father most definitely was a Lewallen.
My cousin, Paula, tells that she found a story online several years ago, printed it and mailed it to our Aunt who has now passed away. The story was that Sheriff John Lewallen's son was married to a woman who had been fooling around on him and became pregnant. He told the son to give up the child or the woman. Auntie was soooo incensed and threw the info away.
John Preston was my gr.grandfather, and I never knew him. My dad does remember him as being quite an anti-social person, though. Given what we know via dna about his birth, he may have rightly decided that the world was not such a friendly place and better to keep to oneself. I don't have a photo of him, but will try to find one from other family members. I think he had about 12 children, so surely I could find something from some of them.
Billie has already shared w/ me the story about a Shad(e)/Shadrack who ran a "bawdy house". I'll appreciate anything more on that story if you have it, and any help to rule out who ISN'T John P.s mother/father. I've also discovered on your site here a Preston Lewallen(sp?) in AL.
Thanks for this group. I'm looking forward to learning more. Carol Redd