It has long been thought that Thomas Abrams of Turkeyfoot PA (and other locations) was the son of Henry Abrams Sr, Am Rev Vet, and native of Wales (or perhaps Cornwall) who lived a long life from 1720 to 1828. Thomas' age, his geographical proximity to Henry Sr, the naming patterns of both families and the belief that Thomas married Jemima Friend, sister of Sara Friend, spouse of Henry Jr, all seemed to confirm this relationship. Other people have pointed out the lack of any legal papers linking these two Abrams and have expressed some doubts.

Four Abrams who trace back to Thomas, myself included, have matched very reliably on DNA markers. Recently, a descendent of Henry Sr, through a different son (I think it was Gabriel 1750-1841) tested his DNA.

The results were surprising (and very disappointing to many of us). This tester did not match the 4 Thomas testers at all, not even close (less than 50% match).

Based upon this result, it can be concluded that Thomas Abrams (1751 - 182?) is not a natural son of Henry Sr, altho he may have been raised by Henry Sr.

The only caution I would add at this point is that this conclusion is based upon a single tester from Henry Sr and it would be prudent to test a second non-Thomas descendent. So if you are reading this and are a male Abrams descendent of Henry Jr, Gabriel, Reuben, Basil Abrams or Andrew Abrams, we would really like your participation.

While this result is personally very disappointing to me, I would still encourage all Abrams and other surnames to participate in our Abrams DNA project or other appropriate projects. There are now 20-25 members in our project and we are growing steadily. Please reply or contact me if you have any questions or comments about this posting.