Leslie,
You are a member of the group we call the Southwest Virginia Blantons. John and William Blanton appeared out of nowhere in the disputed border area between VA and NC (later TN).
There are many spurious genealogies on the web which connect them to the Tidewater Blantons of Caroline County VA. However, there is no evidence to support it. The genealogies can can be ultimately traced back to a discredited book called "My Father's Family" by Noah Bradley.
William Blanton was the father of John b. ca. 1769, even though one biography suggests that it was John. The 1850 census shows his birth in NC, which could also mean current TN. There is no evidence of a middle initial and it is unlikely, since they did not become common until later.
I will email you copies of Louise McDonald's research on the two families. It is not included in the Ramey books on the Blanton Family Historians site. However, you may want to download them anyway.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~blantonroo...I have posted corrections here:
http://genforum.genealogy.com/blanton/messages/3219.htmlCheck this poster's messages on the Blanton forum, also:
http://genforum.genealogy.com/cgi-genforum/messagehistory.cg...