Let me put it this way, Judy. In order to track nine 8X10 pages of Adams' genealogy for Big Blue, we used several sources and a ton of paper full of notes. Here's the list. "Descendants of James & Agnes (Wilson) Adams with 57 Allied Families" by Leona Adams Loviska. "White River Chronicles of S C Turnbo" by James F Keefe & Lynn Morrow. "History of Marion Co" by Earl Berry. "Marion Co Marriages Records 1887-1917" (3 volumes) by Marian Burnes & Vicki Roberts. "Portraits and Landscapes" by Z B Smith (a collection of newspaper articles) "Marion Co. AR 1890" by Helen McMindes (a reconstruction using 1880 + 1900 census & 1890 tax records). Robert J. Adams, 2741 Live Oak Ave, Fullerton CA 92635. Helen McMindes (she's recently moved from Harrison AR to CA so don't yet have her new address). MCAR 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920 federal census. SCAR 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880 federal census. "Pleasant Ridge Cemetery" by Max Parnell. And, of course, that wonderfully easy computer age capability . . . Cross Referencing. Exactly where each snippit of info came from, I can't say offhand. It's all in the archived Big Blue files, though <grin> Three huge boxes stuffed with enough paper to make a couple of huge trees! What we gleaned from all this is: Robert "Bob" Adams (son of James & Agnes [Wilson] Adams) b VA ca 1770 d Izard Co. AR March 1825 m/1 KY 19 March 1796 Patience Hall; m/2 KY 23 May 1804 Elizabeth "Betsy" Ferguson. In Lawrence Co. AR 1820. Children: Robert "Bob" & Patience had 2 kids. Robert "Bob" & "Betsy" had 5 kids including Robert Adams Jr. b KY 1808 m Izard Co. AR Martha Jane ___ 1807. He is a widower in North Fork Township, Izard Co. AR 1870. Matthew Adams (son of James & Agnes [Wilson] Adams) b VA 1767/8 d Izard Co. AR 1836 m/1 Esther Barnett; m/2 Christian Co KY Catherine Ferguson d Pope Co AR 29 Dec 1841. In Lawrence Co AR 1817. Children: Matthew & Esther had 5 kids - all girls. Matthew & Catherine had 3 sons including Robert Adams b KY 1794/9 d Independence Co AR 1865 m Cynthia Cates b NC ca 1798. In Tomahawk Township, Searcy Co AR 1840, 1850. In Bear Creek Township, Searcy Co. AR 1860. Children: Stacy Adams b AR 1818 m Eli B Sooter. Miranda Adams b AR 30 Jan 1822. Matthew Adams b AR 1822. Single in SCAR 1870 living with sister Mary Shaw. Joseph Adams b AR ca 1827 m Elvira Jane ___ b TN 1828. Mary Adams b AR ca 1825 m J D Shaw. In SCAR 1870. Thomas Adams b AR 1834 d bef 1870 m Emille Hodge (daughter of Granville K & Elizabeth [Campbell] Hodge) b McNairy Co TN. She m/2 James Holstead. Abner Adams b SCAR 1837/8 m Mary ___ b AR 1837. Eliza M Adams b AR 1840. The best I can do for PROOF is that Matthew (son of James & Agnes) settled in Searcy Co and was there from its inception in 1835 while Robert (son of James & Agnes) settled in Izard Co and his son Robert was still there in 1870. Looks to me like they lived in different areas of Izard Co and when Searcy Co was created out of Izard, Matthew was in the Searcy Co part. Because Big Blue was essentially a Marion Co book on Marion Co families, we only tracked data that led to Marion Co. (Actually, we tracked in both directions - from Adamses in MCAR back and from James & Agnes forward.) Here, again, I'm probably duplicating data you already have, but this is a method of tracking Vicki and I use lots. SCAR 1860 Sulphur Springs Township: Joseph Adams 33 AR. Elvira 32 TN. Matthew 10 AR. Ervin David 12 AR. JAMES 7 AR. William 5 AR. George 2 AR. Elizabeth Bone 17 __. William 2 AR SCAR 1870 Bear Creek Township: Joseph Addams 43 AR. Elvira 42 TN. Martha [sic] 19 AR. JAMES 16 AR. William 14 AR. George 11 AR. Abner 4 AR. John 2 AR. SCAR 1880 Sulphur Springs Township: #28-29 Joseph Addams 57 AR NC KY. Elvira J 52 TN GA TN. Abner 14 AR AR TN. John W 12 AR AR TN. William G 23 AR AR TN (son). Georgia 18 AR AR AR (d-in-l). #16-17 Amos Treadwell 56 TN NC NC. Siles R 23 AR TN TN (son). Mary 22 AR MO TN (d-in-l). Victory J. 2 AR AR AR (g-dau). Margaret R 11/12 AR AR AR (g-dau). JAMES M Addems 26 AR AR TN (s-in-l). Margaret C [Treadwell] 26 AR AR TN (wife). Joseph L 5 AR AR AR (son). Sarah E 3 AR AR AR (dau). John Q 1 AR AR AR (son). Tracking this family - dates, birth places, townships, names - indicates to me that James M Addams (consistent spelling variant not used with other families of the same surname) was the son of Joseph & Elvira and the husband of Margaret C Treadwell. The "M" could well stand for "Marion." Whether you call this proof or deduction, I'm not real sure. Obviously the James Newton Adams is out of the running - wrong middle name/initial. And the fact that James' father's brother's widow married second James Wilson Holstead lends credence since they all ended up in the same place. Hope you can figure out all this stuff. And that it helps. Mysty shakerag@mtnhome.com "Genealogy without documentation is mythology"