Darlene Luallen Griffin - Aug 23, 2012
Billie, Renee, Carla--I just looked at my Sessions Cousins DNA facebook page and saw that Carl Lewallen who is descended from Zachariah Davis Lewallen matches 66/67 markers with the Sessions, Davises, and Lewallen (ME...actually my cousin Paul)!! Renee, you and I have wondered if my Matthew and your Zachariah could be brothers. It appears that that could be a possibility, but certainly closely related. Carla, thank you, thank you, thank you for finding someone to test. There is still a huge mystery, but I no longer feel like my Luallen/Lewallens are out there all alone. I have learned all sorts of things from the Session researchers...would you believe that there was a pirate ship whose captain was a Davis back in the 1700s? None of the Sessions know where the Davis connection comes from either. Billie, Michael Lyons who is a 67 marker match is also part of the Sessions group. He was raised as a foster child and was told his birth father was from Maryland. The interesting thing is he now lives as an adult 20 miles from where my father's family is from in MO. I don't have time to spend on this until the weekend. I put in a 12 hour day at school and then came home and spent another hour and a half preparing for tomorrow. It is almost 11 and 5:15 will come very early tomorrow, but I couldn't wait to share with all of you!
Billie Harris - Aug 23, 2012
Darlene, Renee and Carla, I'm so glad the results are back in for Carl's DNA. I figured that since we find Zachariah and Matthew mentioned together in Scott County that they were probably brothers. Great information. Please thank Carl for doing this for us. And Darlene, you've waited a long time to find a connection so I'm happy for you.
What information do you have on the Sessions ancestors? Maybe we can piece this all together.
Something to ponder, in case you haven't already, and a lot depends on the Sessions ancestry and how far back they can trace it. But is it possible Zachariah and Matthew were both Davis' and their father passed away and the mother married a Lewallen? I ask this because Zach's middle name is Davis. Maybe that was his real surname and it's being used as a middle name? It's just a thought.
Last night I did some research on the Davis family, trying to find a Zachariah and a Matthew listed in the same post. I'm not saying they were Davis, only that it's something I looked at. Here's one I found on GenForum although I know this wouldn't be your Matthew and Zachariah because of the ages:
I am currently researching the families descending from Matthew S. Davis born abt 1785 and and Susannah Faris of Buckingham County, Virginia. I believe his parents were Matthew and Elizabeth Davis from Surry County and that Zachariah Davis was his brother. Matthew had six children: Jeanetta Ellen Davis (married James Miller Armstead and moved to Roane County now WV); Martha L. Davis (married Hiram A. Shipp and lived in Albemarle County, Virginia); William Henry Davis (married Mary Catherine Hill and moved to Roane County where he was a miner); Elizabeth Ann Davis (married Thomas Carr Glass and died in Fluvanna County, Virginia); John Warner Davis (married Martha Jane Smith and later Martha J Morris, lived in Louisa County, Virginia), and Mary Susan Davis (married Samuel Dennis and died in Fluvanna County, Virginia). I have a substantial amount of information about these families and was wondering if anyone else was interested in these same folks.
Darlene, I can only imagine how busy you must be right now. My husband was a school teacher, too, so I understand.
Darlene Luallen Griffin - Aug 23, 2012
Billie, Erasmus Sessions, who one of the current day Sessions is descended from, is documented as having been ill during the Civil War in Huntsville, Scott County, TN. He was part of the Confederate Army from Alabama. I looked it up and there was a battle in Scott County. He died later in the war from continued illness. Renee and I have wondered if he was there just because of the battle or was he left there to recover because he knew or had relatives. This would have been after my Matthew died, but I believe Zachariah was still there. So far that is the only possible connection we have found. It may just be a coincidence, but interesting...
Billie Harris - Aug 24, 2012
My opinion, for what it's worth - and it's only a guess - is that your Matthew and the Zachariah were somehow connected to the Lewallens in Scott County, including John, the sheriff. John was, if memory serves me, born ca 1812 which means he was about ten years older than Matthew and Zachariah. They would not have been his brothers because by that time, Lucy Rice Lewallen, wife of Anderson, would have been too old to be bearing children. We don't have anything that documents the names of Anderson's children except for just a couple of things which gives specific children - Joel being one and I can't recall the others off hand without looking them up. But some early researchers said their first child's name was Zachariah Lewallen and where that information came from, who knows. The only earlier Zachariah Lewallen I could find was the one who served in the War of 1812 from Wayne County Indiana, showing on Ancestry. Wayne County is where descendants of Shadrach and Deborah (Burson) Lewallen lived. According to a posting on Rootsweb, both Shadrach and Zachariah were in. Col. McFarland's detachment so one would assume they were somehow related. I haven't come across a Zachariah related to Shadrach but that doesn't necessarily mean anything, and I haven't come across any other references to that particular Zachariah.
I don't know if you've read this post or not:
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/CUMBERLAND-RIV
ER/2002-03/1016402092
Is there any documentation stating Zachariah's middle name is Davis? If so, then it's still possible Zach and Matt were Davis children and a widowed mother married a Lewallen. But if there's nothing stating Davis was the middle name, then there's a big question out there on who the father and mother were for these two fellows. Again though, they had to have been connected somehow to the descendants of Anderson because they lived in the same area and were documented with others we assume were related to Anderson's descendants.
Darlene Luallen Griffin - Aug 24, 2012
Billie, the thing that really started Renee, Carla, and me looking deeper into the relationship between Zachariah and Matthew is Zachariah's marriage license to Nancy McDonald. He is listed as "Zachariah Davis" by Justice of the Peace Allen McDonald who also married my Matthew and Sarah Lewallen (although he wrote down her sister's name Susannah...). These are documented.
Billie Harris - Aug 25, 2012
Darlene, do you think they may have been sons of a Davis widow who married a Lewallen?
I've been working on trying to bring the descendants of Anderson's siblings down for the past three hours and my eyes are starting to cross. There's bound to be a connection. But where?
Darlene Luallen Griffin - Aug 25, 2012
I don't know. I think all documentation after his marriage lists him as Zachariah Lewallen. Renee could tell you more about that. As you know for such a long time I have thought that Rebecca Lewallen who is listed as a daughter to Anderson and Lucy Rice Lewallen is Matthew's mother. She also lived with her brother and sister-in-law Andrew Lewtian and Malinda DAVIS Lewallen. After their deaths, she lived with a Daniel Davis in Fentress Co (with a Martin Lewallen & wife who appear to be her son). I have not been able to trace Martin Lewallen. The Sessions researchers are just as puzzled and are going nuts trying to find out why they are related to Lewallens as well as Davises. DNA can be unnerving! We just can't figure out who our common ancestor is...could be a Sessions, could be a Davis, could be a Lewallen. I have wondered if there were indentured servants who took the name of their master (and that Davis pirate could have fathered nations)!
Billie Harris - Aug 25, 2012
Okay, Darlene, try this for size.
The people who've tested for the Davis DNA trace their earliest ancestor back to Nathan Davis of North Carolina born ca 1775 but do we really need their direct line because it could be an offshoot (a brother or cousin) of Nathan Davis? However...note the name of the person who tested - Walter C. Davis III.
Walter Davis is a very prominent name in documents with Anderson and Andrew Lewallen in Tennessee. Is it possible Walter Davis was a son of the Nathan Davis and the father of Matthew and Zachariah? Rebecca Lewallen, the one you suspect is the mother of Matthew and Zachariah, was living with Andrew and Malinda (Davis) Lewallen (Andrew is probably her brother) in the 1860 census and then, as you poit out, she's living with Daniel Davis (born ca 1824) and a Malinda Davis (born 1808) in 1870.
Who's son was Daniel Davis?
And...with the given name of the person testing being Walter and the connections in Scott County of Walter Davis and Anderson and Andrew Lewallen... ??? Could the name have been passed down through generations?
Billie Harris - Aug 25, 2012
A little more research shows Daniel Davis was the son of Walter Davis. And Malinda must have been his sister. The 1860 Morgan County, Tennessee, census shows Walter age 80 (1780) North Carolina, Rhoda 73, Malinda 46 (1814), Daniel B. 35 (1825), and Mila Andrews a female age 77 (1783) Tennessee.
Rhoda died November 14, 1882.
Don't I recall somewhere that a Rhoda Lewallen married a Davis? Maybe not, but Rhoda sure sounds familiar.
Darlene Luallen Griffin - Aug 25, 2012
Billie, I have been working with all this information for awhile, but I welcome anyone else to the search. Walter C. Davis III's family has been looking for the parents/siblings of Nathan Davis for over 50 years. He has his research posted on the web in a couple of places. Nathan Davis's sons moved to a different part of TN. Right now I can't remember which county. I think that possibly a brother to Nathan Davis may be who we are looking for. James Walter was my grandfather's name. He always went by Walter. One of the Sessions researchers went to a DAR seminar yesterday and they suggested that if ones ancestors were Masons, you should contact the Masons for birth, death records. I had never thought of that and Masons played a vital role in the early years of our country. Are there any Masons on our tree?
Billie Harris - Aug 26, 2012
Never thought to look at Mason information before and don't recall seeing anything on the Lewallens, or others of my lines, pertaining to Masons. Another avenue to research.
Renee Nazario - Aug 28, 2012
This is all totally cool. I though Zachariah and Matthew would match up. I have been away my mother had a heart attack-doing better now and we had 4 deaths in our family. I just got home from being gone for a week and I will process this info when I am not so tired. Thanks for all who tested.
Renee Nazario - Aug 30, 2012
I guess the fact that Zachariah and Nancy went to Arkansas to sign the Affadavit for Lucretia Lawson Thompson makes more sense now. I wondered why of all the people in Scott County did Zachariah and Nancy go to Arkansas to file the Affadavit. With Mathew Lewallen being married to Sarah Lawson and in 1873 Mathew was dead, Zachariah would be the next closest family. I know that Sarah is though Randolph and Lucretia is listed though Robert Lawson, but Randolph and Susuana went to the wedding of Lucretia Lawson and Blagburn Thompson so there is a connection between the two families as well. When Zachariah and Nancy and family went to Arkansas their daughter Ferbie Lee Lewallen 06-19-1853-07-07-1940-Bell County, Texas met and married Amos Johnson 09-07-1853-Arkansas-03-29-1930-Bell County, Texas, they married in Arkansas before moving on to Texas, I am still printing off the information from Steve's worldconnect site for the family she and her kids married into. It is about as big as the Lewallen-McDonald family.
- Sep 3, 2012
Renee,
The reason Zack had gone to Arkansas was to work on the railroad. Nicholas was born in Van Buren County, Ark and I believe Feribe and Amos were married in Madison, a
neighboring county.
Carla
Renee Nazario - Sep 3, 2012
Thank you. Madison is the county where Zack and Nancy did the Affadavit for Lucretia also.