Bill & Jan Breedlove wrote: > Your arguments are compelling, and I appreciate your energies. Yes, > someone has misread the original documents, perhaps me, but I plan > to get further resolution of this question. Regarding the File 476 > contents versus the version of the 1850 census taker, I guess I will choose to accept the birth place of Charles as NC mainly because of his sibling relationships that I regard as compelling. I would tend to agree on that basis since we do not know what happened to James and Nancy after 1820. I have sent two request for lookups in the early Greene County Tax and Land Records to see if we can figure out just when each of the Breedlove's got there. > Reviewing William Breedlove, Sr's estate settlement again, Webster Co, > MO File 1723, the list of heirs by William Jr reads in part " -- Charles, Ransom & Nancy Breedlove." If we agree that this Charles is > apparently deceased by final settlement in 1871, who do you think are > the parents of Ransom and Nancy Breedlove? Do you know if this > Charles is the father or brother of Ransom and Nancy? The settlement payout for Ransom and Nancy is not at the level of heirs, but at a second level such as for grandchildren. Bill, this is intriguing. Charles, Ransom, Nancy and Amarillies who died in 1856, are the children of John Breedlove by his first wife Sarah Ann ??? These are all listed on the 1850 Green census. It is this Charles W. Breedlove who died in the Civil War on 3 Jan 1864 in Little Rock, AR. Why would children of John be heirs of William is the quesion. Could it be that Sarah Ann was a daughter of William? John was William's nephew and very much alive but his wife had died and he had remarried to Rebecca Wilkison. That would appear to be the case, that is that William devised to the children of his deceased daughter Sarah Ann, which would make them grandchildren, rather than to her husband who had children by a second wife by the time William made out his will. I can think of no other reason for only these particular children to be named and not any of John's other children. Granted that the normal way would be to specifically say they were his deceased daughter's children, but such things are forgotten sometimes in death bed wills, since everyone present knows exactly who the testator is talking about. The total of these children's shares should equal the amount for each of William's other childen so that the share that would have gone to Sarah Ann as a daughter would be split eqully amoung her chldren. This would explain the mixup over two Charles Breedlove's. The only adult Charles in 1850 would be the one on the census who died in 1852. The one mentioned in William's will in 1858 was his grandson. Given this, I would say the preponderance of evidence would make the first Charles the son of James & Nancy Simmons Breedlove. Now we have to find out who the other two daughters were that are listed on the 1820 census. Tom