Corrections to Louise McDonald's Research

We are fortunate that Louise McDonald and her collaborators performed so much research and made it widely available. It is doubtful that we would be able to collect all of the family papers at this time. Their research uncovered the basic structure of the post-Revolutionary War Blanton families.

Readers can download most of her research at the Blanton Family Historians website at:

http://www.blantonfamilyhistorians.comhttp://www.blantonfamilyhistorians.com

She deposited her papers at the Tennessee State Library and Archives and, I have been told, other depositories. Her collaborators also had most of them, but I have been unable to find out where any of them deposited their papers.

The loose papers at TSLA contain some information not in the above book, so it is possible that important research may be among their private papers. I would particularly like to find Mary Louise Attal's papers, since she dida lot of research on Col. John and John of Burke. She also claimed to have a document that identified the father of Reuben Blanton.

We are also fortunate that, until very recently, there were a number of prolific transcribers of Virginia records. This is especially important for court orders, which are very difficult to use without a comprehensive index. Thus, we now have ready access to a number of important records from which we have added to our knowledge of colonial Blantons.

In this thread, I will summarize the changes and additions to LMD's work based on recent research. Hopefully, this will allow people to continue to use this group's research.

Of course, as many of us have noted, people should ignore those genealogies, widely copied on the internet, which are ultimately based on the discredited "research" of Noah Bradley. They are readily recognized, since they show Reuben and Claiborne Blanton as sons of William and Hannah Hobbs Blanton. DNA testing has clearly demonstrated that neither was.