I am in the middle of transferring data from my old to my new computer, and do not have access immediately to all my records. So, lacking a copy of the master index, I started going through old issues of a newsletter I published. In an issue from 1989, I found a deed, Hanover Co VA Deeds 1783-1792, page 53, published page 251: …. my third part of the tract of land sold by my late husband David Alvis of Hanover Co to Moses Harris. Elizabeth (X) Alvis. This is Elizabeth, the widow of David Alvis Sr, father of both David Jr and John. It demonstrates a connection between George Alves’s son and at least one member of the Harris family.

My Hanover and Goochland Co VA data has been somewhat limited to Alvis families, although I have looked at Stanley and Houchens families, and I’ve not been looking for recent documents which concern Jesse Alvis. I missed his affidavit for Keziah Sneed’s pension.

There were nine probable brothers in VA; the two who concern us here are John who was still in Hanover Co tax lists as late as 1805, and David who was in Goochland Co in 1796 and in Buckingham Co in 1800. John and David’s father David Sr would have been a stepbrother of the William and Edward Harris you mentioned (or whatever term one would use for a much younger son of a stepfather’s later marriage after your mother died).

I mention David because his first child was a son named Henry Harris Alvis. David’s wife was Mary Cauthon, whose mother was Agnes Harris, daughter of William Harris, the son of George Alves’s stepson William. I have a record from The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 22, page 262f, showing the younger William Harris mentioning his granddaughter.

David Jr was too young to be the father of Jesse Alvis, unless Jesse was some years younger than he claimed on his Revolutionary War pension application. And I think Jesse belongs with the Hanover Co Alvises, not the Goochland Co branches.

Jesse was in Hanover Co tax lists in 1795 and 1797, along with John Sr, Forester, and Stanley. I believe that David and his grown sons had all left Hanover Co by that date. I believe the most likely father of Jesse Alvis was John. As of now, I have no clues to the family John’s wife.

I appreciate your 1810 census data, since every researcher seems to spot familiar names that another one doesn’t know.

We do not know the names of the wives of several of the children of David Sr and Elizabeth Alvis, but recurring names among their children (Anderson, Harris, Meredith, Spencer, Woodford and so on) lead me to think all these families are clues to the others.

This lends credence to your idea that Dabney Alvis and Jesse Alvis were brothers.

The names of the children of William and his brother Jonathan include Mary Tinsley, Giles, Sherod and Henry. The DNA of this Harris line matches the descendants of William and Edward Harris step sons of George Alves, David Alvis’ father.

The father of William Harris b 1762 and Jonathan b 1776, is thought to be David Harris born circa 1730. I’m trying to fill in the gap from David to presumably William, George Alvis’ stepson.

Mitch