Betty: Your posting brings to mind an incident I just finally had resolved regarding birth places. One of my ancestors was reported to have been born in Cookeville, Putman Co., TN in 1814. That sounds well and good, except there was no such place during that time period and Putman County wasn't formed until 1842, only to be declared "unconstitutional." It was finally established 11 February 1854 and was made up of sections of Jackson, Overton, Fentress, and White Counties. So where was this ancestor born? According to the Putnam County Library Director, "In 1814 the area that was to become Cookeville was in Jackson County. It wasn't named Cookeville until the reestablishment of Putnam County in 1854. White Plains was the name of the community that was the temporary county seat when Putnam was first established in 1842." I hope this helps someone when trying to determine exactly where their ancestor was born and there is conflicting information. Best regards, Jacquelyn (Erhard) Bean jebean@ccape.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "bbb" <bbb@tco.net> To: <BARKER-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2002 10:43 AM Subject: Re: [BARKER] Joe Barker > My Hiram Barker, couldn't from census to Census remember where he was born.