Hi, Are any of you researching - or familiar with - the Erasmus BEARDEN, age 60, b. S.C., who appears in the 1860 Floyd County, GA, census? He was enumerated with: Ann, 58, domestic; Elizabeth, 83; John, 24, laborer; William, 22, laborer; Margaret, 12; William ?L.E.?, 24, teacher. I'd ordered the 1850 Floyd County census, too, but the copy I got was too faded to decipher anything, so I can't tell if Erasmus was there in 1850. I'm still waiting for the 1840 reel. I'm trying to determine if he's the same Erasmus BEARDEN, b. circa 1800, who disappeared from Spartanburg County, S.C., sometime between 1836-39. His wife, Dicey (BOURLAND) BEARDEN, was enumerated in 1840 Graves County, KY, census with her six kids, all of whom were born between 1829 and 1837. The concensus, at least to this point, has been that Erasmus died in S.C., prompting Dicey to pack up the kids and head back to her family in KY. By 1850 she, too, had disappeared and her children were scattered. Erasmus, by the way, was the grandson of Edmund BEARDEN, b. N.C. circa 1740. He married Dicey BOURLAND in 1828. The youngest of their six children, Benjamin Franklin BEARDEN, was my g-g-grandfather. Thanks for your help, Linda lharris@weir.net