Greetings. I descend from Randal Revels who may have used his biological mom's last name...until the 1860 census when he and his wife and children all began using the last name of HARDIN. They had been a neighbor of Benjamin and Holly Byrd Hardin...and Benjamin was old enough to have been his father. Perhaps Randal was born to him an a Revels or Revells woman. I can see naming patterns in Revels/Revells which are similar to those in Randal's family.

He was mulatto as was his wife, Lydia Lawson. They were born in Robeson Co., circa 1820 - 1825, married and raised alarge family before moving to nearby Columbus Co., GA, where Lydia died giving birth to their last child, a son, JOHN HENRY HARDIN.

The Hardin's probably connect with Benjamin Hardin and wife Sarah Stanley, whose Hardin ancestors came from France via England, to Staton Island, Richmond Co., NY....and the family migrated southward...

Anyone with info, pls let me hear from you. Visit my website on ancestry.com, OUR Families, A to Z...read of other Hardins and Revels.