David Thomas was the father of Priscilla Thomas Ragland. An 1878 Barren County Kentucky Death Report for Priscilla Thomas Ragland indicates that her parents were David and Mary Thomas, both natives of Pennsylvania. Much confusion has appeared over the identification of Mary Thomas. Information on the Internet has led to much confusion and a large number of researchers have accepted (Mary) Margaret McKaughan as the wife of David Thomas. Firstly, Margaret McKaughan did not have a forename of "Mary". Her name was simply Margaret, as can be shown in the 1850 Census of Macon County Tennessee, where she appears as the wife of Humphrey Thomas (1787-abt.1860).
Humphrey Thomas and Margaret McKaughan were the grandparents of Amanda Sloan, the wife of Ephraim Thomas Ragland. Recent Y-DNA research indicates that David Thomas and Humphrey Thomas were from entirely different Thomas families although they lived in the same neighborhood in Tennessee.
David Thomas was the son of William Thomas and Deborah (surname unknown) of Franklin County Virginia. William, David and Ephraim Thomas Sr. appear consistently in the tax records of Bedford-Franklin Counties in Virginia from 1782 until 1802 when they departed for Jackson County Tennessee.
Research indicates that Johann Adam Teel of York Pennsylvania moved to Franklin County Virginia in about 1785 and bought property adjacent to William, David and Ephraim Thomas. David and Ephraim married daughters of "Adam" Teel. Adam Teel was the namesake of Adam Thomas Ragland, a son of Priscilla Thomas and George Ragland. Ephraim Thomas Ragland was named after Ephraim Thomas Sr. the brother of David Thomas.
Autosomal DNA confirms that the descendants of George Ragland and Priscilla Thomas match over 100 descendants of Johann Adam Teel and his wife Maria Magdalena Burkhardt. Thus, there is ample evidence that David Thomas' wife cannot be Margaret McKaughan.
Mary Teel Thomas, the wife of David Thomas, died in April 1850 in District 1 Macon County, Tennessee, adjacent to Priscilla and George Ragland.
My great Grandmother Sallie Amanda Ragland Dodd reported that Priscilla Thomas was "Pennsylvania Dutch" not Scotch-Irish like Margaret McKaughan. Sallie Amanda lived in the house with Priscilla Thomas until she was about 9 years of age. Thus, she had direct knowledge of the family and their ethnic origins.
The birth record of Anna Maria "Mary" Teel is found in a Lutheran Church registry in Dover, York County Pennsylvania on 9 July 1763.. The death record of Mary Thomas in Macon County Tennessee states that she was 87 years of age (b.1763) and that she was born in Pennsylvania. Thus, the death record is in perfect accord with the birth record. .
Lastly, David and Humphrey Thomas both appear in the 1820 US Census of Smith County, Tennessee. David is in an older age category than Humphrey. Humphrey was born in 1787 and would have been 14-15 years of age when Priscilla Thomas was born in 1802. Margaret McKaughan was 70 years of age in 1850, 7 years older than Humphrey Thomas. This chronology does not support Margaret McKaughan as a mother of Priscilla Thomas. Humphrey and Margaret's first known child, Hiram Leonard Thomas was born in 1807 when Humphrey was 20 years of age and Margaret was 27. Humphrey and Margaret's 4th child was Flora Ann Thomas (b. 1814), the mother of Amanda Sloan (the wife of Ephraim Thomas Ragland). Flora Ann Thomas married Cyrus Sharpe Sloan of Smith County Tennessee in about 1829. Cyrus died in the Mexican War in 1848. He died of complications of rheumatic fever in Veracruz Mexico. This tragedy left Flora Ann Thomas Sloan with 7 orphaned children of which Amanda Sloan was the eldest. Flora has not been found in any record after 1850, so it is assumed that she died shortly after her husband's decease. Amanda and the other children were distributed among Cyrus Sloan's brothers and sister in Smith and Jackson Counties in Tennessee. Amanda dwelt with her uncle John Sloan and her younger brother Samuel H Sloan in Jackson County in 1850. Amanda married Ephraim Thomas Ragland in 1852 in Macon County Tennessee. That marriage certificate is maintained in the National Archives in Washington in the Civil War pension file of Ephraim Thomas Ragland.
For further information on the Thomas, Teel, Ragland and McKaughan families, please feel free to contact me. Robert Dodd
