Still obsessed with the Allen family and trying to confirm some tentative conclusions about my grandmother's ancestry. I am writing this without my notes in front of me but can share the gist of the story.
It seems that there are two distinct lines of Allens that settled in early Virginia, maybe three. There are the Allens that came over from England in the 1600's and settled in New Kent County. There are Allens that settled in York County in the 1600's. Then there are the Allens that came over from Scotland and moved into western Virginia from the north.
These families converged in Southwest Virginia by the 1800's. Descendants migrated to Kentucky and West Virginia. These families used many of the same first names (i.e. Sarah, Rebecca, Robert, John), and they intermarried with some of the same families (i.e. Scott, Crawford, Watson).
No wonder I am having trouble figuring out who is whom!
UPDATE: I contacted someone through the Lunenburg Historical Society Facebook page. They referred me to two genealogists who have done a lot of research about the Allens. We have been corresponding for a couple of days now, and I am excited to have such enthusiastic help with my research! It turns out that I really need to get a yDNA test done on a male member of the Allen line to prove my connection to the New Kent Allens. We have no direct Allen descendants - I'd have to find a proven descendant of one of Augustus Allen's siblings.
