Joseph Hardin

Father of Presley Hardin. Born Loudoun County Virginia ~1750. Revolutionary War Patriotic Service: collected public beeves and drove them to camp; paid the 1783 Loudoun Co supply tax. Source: Abercrombie & Slatten Va Rev Pub Claims Vol 2 p 606; Library of Virginia Loudoun Co Personal Property Tax 1782-86 (reel 207); Hening's Statutes Vol 11 pp 112-129. Died Loudoun Co before 15 April 1806. Y-DNA UPDATE 2026-06-06: the HHH Y-DNA Project (hhhdna.com) has tested a male-line descendant of Joseph and matched him at genetic distance 0 to Mark Hardin (c.1788-c.1873) and clustered him with descendants of Revolutionary War soldier Benjamin Hardin. This definitively rules out the Combs paternity theory and confirms Joseph was patrilineally Hardin/Harding. His specific parents remain undocumented but the surname descent is settled. Y-DNA UPDATE 2026-06-06 (Round 2): the HHH Y-DNA Project has identified the common patriarchal ancestor: William Harding (1720-1798) of Stafford County VA. Joseph of Loudoun is most likely an older son of William Harding from his first marriage to Elizabeth Ashby c.1740, making him a half-brother of Mark Hardin (1788-1873) and Benjamin Hardin (1753-1832, DAR Patriot A050166), both born of William's second marriage to Clarissa Million. Critically, the HHH project also identified a non-paternity event: William Harding (1720-1798) was the natural son of Joseph Combs Sr. (c.1670-1756) of Aquia Creek Stafford VA by an unknown Harding woman. So the patriline is genetically Combs but the surname was passed via the mother. Earlier family-tree claims of Joseph Combs paternity were CORRECT in spirit (Combs DNA) but had the wrong individual (William Harding, not Joseph of Loudoun, was the direct Combs son). This is one of the most significant findings in the Hindman family tree to date.