This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/RS.2ADE/15.1.1.1.1 Message Board Post: I don't know anything about the Bean family. I posted the query about the Beans for a cousin. Joshua and Matilda Nichols first appears on the 1850 Marion County, AL census along with several other Nichols families. Chania Cochran Nichols was the head of one of these families and she was evidently the widow of Isaac Nichols and they moved to Marion County and he died before the 1850 census was taken. Chania filed for bounty land in reference to her husband's service in the War of 1812 and this is what she said in her bounty land application: 1. That she, Chania Cochran, married Isaac Nichols on the 22 September 1826 in Bedford County, TN. 2. That Isaac died on the 9 May 1847, aged 57 years at his residence in Marion County, AL. 3. That Isaac was drafted in Sumter District, SC to serve in the the War of 1812. I don't know the connection of all the Nichols who first appear in Marion County, 1850, but from Chania's application, I gather that at least some of them came to Alabama from Bedford County, TN. I have no proof as to who your Joshua's father was.