John poss or William?? presumed Taliaferro

• General Notes
  • http://www.moonzstuff.com/toliver/john1725.html
    
    A DNA study conducted in 2003 by the Taliaferro DNA Project found a genetic match between descendants of four of the "Five Brothers" (Jesse, Charles, William, and Moses).  A descendant of the fifth brother, John, did not match the others.  However, John, Jesse, and Moses did consider themselves to be brothers, proven by a declaration that John Toliver filed in 1856 in support of a Revolutionary War pension application by the widow of Capt. Samuel Johnson.  In the declaration, John refers to his "older brothers" Jesse and Moses Toliver (more…)  It is possible that additional descendants of John Toliver need to be tested to verify the DNA results.  If the results are valid, then John Toliver must have had a different father than Jesse and Moses.
    
    None of the Five Toliver Brothers matched anyone from the Taliaferro family of Virginia, which rules out out the Taliaferros as ancestors of the Toliver Brothers, at least in a direct male line.  It is possible that the Tolivers could be related to the Taliaferros through a female line, such as a child born out of wedlock who took the Taliaferro (Toliver) name.  Although it is difficult to speculate about the actual relationhip between the Tolivers and the Taliaferros, it is true that the Toliver family of Wilkes and Alleghany County occasionally spelled their name Talifer, Talifero or Tollafaro rather than Toliver, and there is even an example of the exact spelling Taliaferro in an 1867 deed involving the heirs of Jesse Toliver's son Solomon Toliver (Alleghany DB 3:336).