question was: Who do you suspect as being the father of your grandfather? I am also having to deal with an unknown. My father was born to a young girl who was unmarried. No one talked about who the unknown person in my case was. I, as a young child was forbidden to ask. Now that my daddy is in his seventies has now said I can search but my grandmother and great grandmother has died. Do you have some hints as what I can do? ================================= The only advice I can give you is to try to talk to as many senior members of your family as possible. Just wind them up, let them go and listen close. While I was in the Mobile area, I went up to Citronelle and just started asking around about my LOTT's. Since there is a LOTT something or another every other mile, you can find all kinds of people willing to direct you to one of the LOTT families. You might not be as lucky. The telephone book in the area you are looking is helpful too. Unless all of your ancestors had only one child each (not likely), the people you find by the same surname in that area may well be related to you. Find the oldest one you can and start listening to the stories. I spoke to a wonderful woman by the name of Mae SHEPHERD, who was born a LOTT. She showed me the bibles of her grandfather and great-grandfather. She spoke of her "Uncle Hous" fondly, as well as many of her other kin. She also talked about her "Aunt Ginnie" who married a WALLEY. My grandfather was raised by a man named WALLEY and his wife, but I was told they weren't any kin to us. Then she told me about what she had heard the adults talking about when she was just a young thing. She said she heard that Aunt Ginnie and that WALLEY man had Ginnie's cousin living with them because Aunt Ginnie was sickly and couldn't have children. She heard them say that the WALLEY man slept right between the two of them. She couldn't remember what the woman's name was, she just knew it was one of Uncle Hous' daughters. I found this a very interesting story, to say the least. When I learned that my grandmother was the oldest daughter of Houston A. LOTT, AKA "Uncle Hous" it got even more interesting. When nobody else had anything on my grandmother, other than the person who gave me this info, I began to see that she was one of the people that the other kinfolk apparently didn't talk about. So I ended up getting info from a woman that I originally thought was no direct kin, but who resembled my father more than his sister did! I took video of our chat, as well as notes. I hope some part of this is helpful to you. It has mostly been blind luck and Karma that has gotten me this far. It seems that every time I help someone find some local info here in MD, someone finds some piece of info for me down in MS or AL. Happy hunting to you! Ruthie