A cousin and I are in the process of writing a booklet on our Holt ancestry, and before finalizing it, want to check and see if anyone has info that would lead us to change something. My Holts came from the Claiborne Co./Grainger Co. area, and I’m sure that my gr-gr-grandfather was Pleasant Holt, born about 1817. Other researchers have always thought that Pleasant was Henry and Elizabeth Bowman Holt’s son, but recent DNA tests have proven differently. He might have been Elizabeth’s because of an indiscretion on her part, but definitely not Henry’s by blood. After considering all the documents and information available, I believe my Pleasant may have been the son of Jane Holt, who was Henry’s sister and David Holt, Sr.’s daughter. I know Jane was David Sr.’s daughter because of a legal document which states that. Jane had several out-of-wedlock children. I strongly believe Henry was also a child of David Sr. because of these reasons: Mary A. Hansard, the author of the “Old Time Tazewell” book, states that a Henry Holt was the brother to Rutha Holt Evans, and another Holt researcher told me that Rutha Holt’s husband Elijah Evans’ family Bible stated Rutha was the daughter of David and Rutha Holt. While neither source is an official document, likely they would be accurate. Ms. Hansard actually knew the Evans and Holt families, and whoever wrote the information about Rutha Holt Evans in a family Bible surely would know it to be true.

If anyone has stronger evidence than this on what I've discussed on the Holts of east TN, would you please pass it on to me so I can examine it? While these suppositions will have to be printed as such, our preference is to present all known, strongest possibilities.

Jane