Thank you for the welcome! I'm happy to be participating!
Whether we are cousins? I wish I knew. I think the chance is 50-50.
You may be steps ahead of me in your research, so please pardon me if the following comments are old information.
Are you familiar with Sne*d DNA test results? Y-DNA results indicate that there are two lineages that, in my opinion, account for all the Sne*ds with long histories in Virginia. My test results place me in one of those two lineages. The family trees for the others in my lineage don't go back before about 1750. Neither do the family trees for those tested persons in the other lineage. I can provide the names of the oldest known ancestors in each of the two lineages should you wish to see them.
My thinking is that the likely progenitors of the two lineages are Samuel who arrived in time to obtain a land patent in 1635 and one or two of the group of Thomas, John and William who arrived in the colony in 1619. I have assembled a spreadsheet that lists all the documentary references to these immigrants from the formation of the Virginia Company until the early 1700's. Happy to share that if you are interested.
My Snead lineage is:
my father, Maxwell Arrington, b. 1915, d. 1985,
his father, Albert Burton, b. 1869, d. 1949;
his father, William Winston, b. 1822, d. 1905;
his father, Cary, b. 1799/1800, d. 1871;
his father, Randolph, b. 1770/1771, d. bet. 1845 and 1850;
his father, John., b. 1738, d. 1802;
and the uncertain generations back to the immigrants.
Until my grandfather left Virginia for North Carolina for a railroad job, all the family had lived in the Louisa, Hanover, Albemarle, Amherst, and Nelson Counties area.
I have spent many years collecting information on every Sne*d mentioned in books and records expecting that some of it might be the key to making the connection back.
I am interested to hear if any of this helps you answer the question of whether we are cousins.
