Thanks to all for your feedback.  DNA testing essentially PROVES that I have 
the correct overall "biological family" for my maternal 
gg-grandfather....but DNA cannot prove which "exact person" in that family 
was his direct line ancestor.  DNA testing shows that my gg-grandfather, 
Smith W. Brown, was a "blood Smith" versus a "blood Brown."  His living male 
"Brown" descendant is a "DNA match" to two Smith men who have accurately 
traced their lineage back to the Alexander Smith who died in Middlesex Co., 
VA in 1696.  One of those two "matching Smith donors" is also a meticulous 
researcher who has written a nearly 100 page manuscript on this overall 
Smith family (and he has been researching this Smith family for over 40 
years, including conversations with other well-respected Smith researchers 
in VA named Carroll C. Chewning and George H. S. King....now both deceased, 
I believe).

Note: My research indicates that all of the following men in the 
Middlesex/Essex Co., VA area received their given names because they were 
all descendants of the above Smith family: Smith Garrett, Smith Young, Smith 
Bennett, Smith Blakey and "my" Smith W. Brown (but of all of these "Smith 
relatives," only Smith W. Brown was actually a son of a Mr. Smith....so he 
carried-on the "Smith Y chromosome").

The woman who was about age 50 and who COULD have been the biological mother 
of Smith W. Brown (he was born about 1817...per the censuses, beginning in 
1850) had four children under the age of 10 in her home in 1810, so she was 
certainly still having children with her husband between 1800 and 1810 (so 
maybe a "final son" in 1817 was simply a "surprise"....and that "surprise" 
MIGHT have been what killed her).  One of her daughters married in Essex 
Co., VA in 1823, and her parents were both dead by then (and as I stated in 
my earlier message, the mother had died before 1820).

The guardians of Smith W. Brown were John and Mary (Bennett) Brown.  My 
research indicates that Mary Bennett was also a descendant of Alexander 
Smith (and the above-mentioned Smith Bennett was Mary's apparent brother), 
so Mrs. Mary (Bennett) Brown was certainly a "viable candidate" to have 
taken-in a Smith infant/toddler from her Smith relative.

The potential biological mother in this discussion was Mrs. Sarah (Waller) 
Smith, who was the youngest daughter of Judge Benjamin Waller of 
"Williamsburg fame."  Since this is a fairly well-documented family, her age 
of around 50 in 1817 is not in much doubt.  Sarah Waller married John Smith, 
the only son of Major Maurice Smith and the widow Mrs. Catherine (Carter) 
Jones, in 1788.  Major Maurice Smith was a great-grandson of the 
above-referenced Alexander Smith who died in 1696.

I certainly cannot say that there are NO other possibilities....and I 
continue to look for them all.  One man in this overall Smith family (an 
older/earlier Maurice Smith) moved to King and Queen Co., VA, and since that 
is a "burned county," it is tough (if not impossible) to follow all of the 
wives and children in that branch of the family.  Mrs. Sarah (Waller) Smith 
having been the biological mother, however, remains the most likely 
scenario, based on what I KNOW (but "who knows what I don't know")?  The 
widower John Smith had a house full of youngsters/teenagers in 1817, and 
maybe he just could not also care for the new infant (so he gave the infant 
to his relative).  In any case, the search continues.

Thanks again,

Bill Davidson 

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