Bob I am not in your line, but have a suggestion. If you haven't done this, look at all GIVEN NAMES in the census records to see if you can find your people listed with another family and the census taker used the same surname for yours. In the 1870 Conway Co, AR Census, I could not find four of our GORDON young men after their father had died & their step mother had remarried. I finally started looking for their given names and found them listed as RAGSDALES. I later found proof that RAGSDALE was their guardian and grandfather. Also, have you checked the two books of abstracts of Conway Co, AR Marriages? I don't have them, but surely someone could do a look-up for you. Don't be too sure you KNOW where your ancestors were at a given time - they had ways of moving for short periods and getting "lost" from us. Our GORDON family was in every census, but for several years - between census - they lived in Indian Territory. We would not have known this if a relative who lived there as a child had not told us. Yours could have been elsewhere during the census and moved back. Good luck in your research. Peg Gordon pgordon7@gte.net -----Bob wrote: Tue, May 25, 1999 8:51 AM Subject: [ARCONWAY-L] BURKS & RICHARDSON |Hello, | I am searching for any trace of information about my |great grandparents. His name was John P. BURKS (b. 1846, |place unknown). Her name was Frances Maria (Sis) |RICHARDSON (b. 1848, place unknown). He served in the 27th |Mississippi Infantry, CSA and was wounded in a battle in |Georgia. I don't know whether they married and then moved |to Arkansas, or whether she was already there and they met |and married there. I do know that they lived in northern |Conway County, Arkansas (Cedar Creek community), just |northwest of the Cherokee Boundary Line. I am sure there |was some sort of Indian (native American) blood, but I do |not know which tribe(s). At various times I have suspected |Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and/or Creek. They claimed |to be Black Dutch, but my Grandmother and Father looked very |Native American, except for green eyes. They obviously |were hiding from something, because you couldn't hide as |well as they did, unless you were really trying. For |instance, they don't appear on any census even when I know |where they were! They also don't appear on any Indian |Rolls that I can find. They are buried in the community |cemetery in Martinville (Faulkner County), Arkansas, which |is only a few miles from where they lived, and still within |the old Cherokee Territory. | Any information at all would be appreciated. |Bob H. |rzrbk@mail.cei.net