Jeanne wrote, >>his great-granddaughter [snip] stated that he was a member of a Pennsylvania regiment and spent the winter with Washington's Army at Valley Forge. No record has shown up yet for his service and he is not listed in the DAR Patriots Index. His son Thomas Lewis, b. 1779 in PA, received a land patent in Indiana in 1829. A grandson was named "James Alpheus Lewis," perhaps a clue that Alpheus enlisted under another name, such as James or John.<< Jeanne is right, no Elpheus/Alpheus Lewis / Louis is on the extracts of rosters for Valley Forge done for the National Park Service, nor listed in the Penna. Archives' extracts from miscellaneous militia rolls, nor on the extracts for Ancestry from the Continental Army rosters in National Archives Micropublication #246. Absence from the DAR Patriots Index only indicates that no woman has successfully applied for membership under the service of a person by this name. Absence from the DAR's and SAR's lists of graves of Revolutionary War soldeirs indicates only that a descendant did not prove service to those organizations' satisfaction, or did not apply at all. The three 1829 land grants in Indiana to persons by the name of Thomas Lewis were by sale of public lands, and had nothing to do with Bounty Land pursuant to Revolutionary War service. No Alpheus Lewis was granted a warrant for such Bounty Land by the Congress or by Virginia. Pennsylvania did not issue bounty land warrants. Congress granted such bounty land to men serving 3 years or more in the Continental Army. No one by this name applied for a pension under Revolutionary War service. Jeanne does not say where and when Alpheus died, but if he died after 1834 or if his widow died after 1835, it is likely that he or she would have applied for a pension if one was due (by that time, available under active service of 9 months or more in miitia, State Troops or Continental Army). Based on the first name of a grandson, Jeanne asserts that Alpheus may have enlisted under another name. It's certainly possible that Alpheus is listed somewhere under a bad misspelling of his name, but with respect to the first name of a grandson, more likely "James" was the name of the grandson's mother's father or a brother or in-law of either parent--or even a close friend/neighbor. The account told by a great-grandchild has had three generations to gain gloss or lose accuracy with each re-telling. Family stories are notoriously unreliable. As an example, a published genealogical and biographical sketch of one family I looked into, as told by a grandson of George X, said that George's name was Jacob and that he came from a part of Pennsylvania that proved to be completely erroneous. Whether the grandson really didn't know the truth, or if the person taking down the information for publication muffed it, will now never be known. Don't forget that the person telling the story for publication also has to go through a writer who may get things wrong and an editor as well. Good hunting, Judy