Cathy,

This is great stuff! But it looks like your family's surname was transcribed as Dabbs in SC, and then they are listed as neighbors in GA to McKinneys and David dObbs and reported as related to David. How has it been established they, the Dabbs who came from SC to GA, were related to the dObbs of GA and enumerated next to them?

This is important. If you could find either in a letter from a relative, wills, or etc. that these dObbs in GA living next to your Dabbs who moved there from SC, are related and these dObbs were dAbbs at one time. Is your direct line (branch) that you come from still spell their surname as dAbbs?

Do you have a document, even one, which shows the change from dAbbs to dObbs? Do you have family records that document your family from going to the dAbbs name to the dObbs name, or is it just passed down in oral history dAbbs changed to dObbs? How many years back can you tell that dAbbs changed to dObbs? I am being so wordy because this can get very confusing writing and reading and trying to get a handle on what we all are saying! :) lol

Now, is their anyway you can get a copy of the original Bible page that has the name Dabbs on it. I would like to look at it and really examine it to see if the old handwriting looks like dObbs or dAbbs. I have a marriage bond that I paid for from TN archives. The index I found the marriage bond on was typed as Richard dObbs, but when I received the original bond the handwriting plainly read dAbbs.

So, if you can get a copy of the original handwritten Bible pages instead of someone transcribing it and typing out the Bible pages, you could feel confident how the spelling of your surname really was!!

I think that a copies of the handwritten documents from the Bible pages need to be in your genealogy records as proof. You never know what can happen on down the road. It also provides a copy to the original that if something happens to it, someone would have a back-up copy to verify history!!!

That is just my humble opinion. I like to have copies of the original documents instead of the transcribed typing of the document. I usually type out any original document (such as wills, and etc) and place them on the next page of the copied original for my records and for factual proof of what I have found.

I sure hope you can get your hands on a copy of the photocopies of the original Bible pages, not just an abstract that the genealogy society has(unless their abstract are copies of the photo). I would try to get in touch with Mrs Essie Joiner Oswalt of Tuskegee, Ala or her relatives that have these photocopies. I would be happy to spend some time helping you on this chore of searching out these photocopies. They may be very important research data to own!

Thanks for all your input on this dAbbs and dObbs question!
Dale