Margrett, The county in Texas to which you're referring must be Gonzales, spelled with a 'g' (I used a small 'g', because there's not much difference between the capital letters!). Texas used to be a part of Mexico, and there are many Hispanic surnames for places in Texas. Gonzales is a very common Hispanic name. Gonzales County is in South Texas, east of San Antonio, and the county seat is the town, Gonzales, which is on the Guadalupe River. This area was settled by the people of Mexico. I ran a quick Rootsweb search on Gonzales Co, and found several BURKETTES, but only mention of any short form - BURK, BURKE, etc. In 1880, a notice was printed in the newspaper announcing that the Post Office was holding an undeliverable letter addressed to George BURK. I do have BURKES in Goliad Co, which is only one county away from Gonzales. My James Austin Burke moved to Texas in about 1846, served several hitches as a soldier, and settled in Goliad in the 1850's. But he was a first-generation citizen, son of Peter and Bridget Burke who left Ireland abt. 1820. They lived in Ontario, Canada, a couple of years, Johnstown, NY, about six years, then moved to Louisiana, where they stayed. James Austin did have two brothers living in LA in 1850, and 6 sons born in TX, after the Civil War, I assume, all of whom I know nothing yet about their lives. Afraid I'm not much help - but maybe knowing a little about Gonzales Co, TX, may help in the long run. I'm with you - it's difficult to imagine how your James Crawford Burks picked up that nickname, whether it came from a Gonzales, or not. I just thought - if he was your grandfather, he was living in a time when travel was more common than back in the previous century - did he go to another part of the country; or overseas in a war; perhaps fight in the Spanish-American War? And the nickname could have been recorded wrong - misspelled, or something. It might be something very logical, if you knew how they pronounced it. Well, good luck to you, Pat Cross Davis - Texas [email protected] from: Burke, Callis, Carrothers, Cross, Martin, Paul, Warren, Wolf, Word ==== BURK Mailing List ==== LDS Ancestral File, International Genealogical Index: http://familysearch.org/. RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi =======================================================