To all others researching, I have only been doing research fro 4 yrs, so I have not learned alot, but a few basic things I learned the old fashioned hard way. 1. Never believe that a Will will name all children. A Will will name only those kids or persons that the writer of the Will would LIKE to give something to, or to remember in the Will. A rich son might not be mentioned, but his dead brother's kids might. Why? The rich son is already set up for life, why give him more, when he doesn't need it? I can show you many Wills of men with large families, and only a few kids are mentioned in the Will, so the names in a Will do not necessarily equate to the number of children a man/woman has. I can show you a death bed Will of a young father, who forgot to name one 4 yr old son. Why? He was in pain, sick, half dead at the time, his wife was also sick, and pregnant. I think the neighbor men came to take down the Will and get it recorded, and they wrote down the kids names as fast as possible, the best they could, but with both parents laying at death's door, one little boy got forgotten. He still grew up with the other brothers, and when he died his kids were partially raised by his brother, but he was never named in the Will. 2. Never put faith in the term Sr. or Jr. You could find a document for Joel Campbell, and signed by Joel Campbell and witnessed by Joel Campbell, Jr. and 'naturally' jump to the conclusion that they were father and son. Not so at all, untrue! They were grandfather, and grandson, and the father of Joel Campbell, Jr was not named Joel at all. So why do people use these term Jr. if not to mean their father was named the same? They are also used as an identifier of AGE. Let's say I have a community and there are several men, and in the same area named George Campbell. Some are brothers, some cousins, some unrelated, some Uncles. Along comes the census taker, and I tell him my name is George Campbell, Jr. Was my Dad George also? No, he wasn't, but I want the census taker to record that I am the YOUNGER man of the area named George Campbell, not to be confused with my Old Man Uncle of the same name, or my OLDER cousins, also of the same name. The same could be said of Sr., that might mean that this man was the OLDEST man in his area name George Campbell, out of a whole crowd similarly named. Don't ever believe the terms of Jr or Sr, unless you first determine through other mans that you really do know who this person is. In fact, at first you should doubt those terms, and then proceed to rersearch to learn the true identity of that person. I come from a James Thompson , III yet he always said he was James Thompson, Jr. Why, because his father was James Thompson, so he thought he was Jr, but in reality he was #3, he just didn't rmember his grandfather. 3. Never believe a death certificate. The DEAD person did know their own name, and birth date and birth place and Parents names, etc. But the problem is, the DEAD person was not filling out the DEATH certificate. It was some daughter in law, or the cousin, or the old folks home, or the son in law, and those people may, or may not know anything about that person. I have many a death certificate filled out even by the deceased own children, in which all the facts were distorted, convoluted and incorrect. It is sad, shocking, and frustrating to look at an official document, and know that it is incorrect. How do you verify it was wrong? You find the Birth certificate and then you know the details of the death certificate were wrong. The parents are giving the birth record of their child, they know when he was born and where. If it says Iowa, then you know the death certificate which states Maryland is wrong. I spent 6 months looking for a family in Maryland, and I kept wondering why that name was so very uncommon in Maryland, it was because the family was never in Maryland, nor even near to Maryland, but the son who gave his mother's death info to the county officials thought she was born in Maryland. To his mind, anything EAST of California, was called Maryland! So I would always believe a Birth certificate before I ever believed any death certificate. And marriage certificates can be wrong also. It is only as good as the clerks handwriting. You may remember Nancy Campbell on her marriage certificate? She was not Nancy Campbell, her name was Nancy Coffey. She had no Campbell blood in her, she was simply getting married to a Campbell. That mix up took me 3 -4 months to fathom, other researchers kept trying to explain it to me, and I would go round and round, still stupified. Finally I got to grasp the truth of the situation, based on the parents, and their Wills, etc. 4. Never believe a History book which gives the Biography of local persons, and states who their parents are and where they came from. These books were written by writers who would come around and say they would interview folks, and for a fee, they would write up your family story in a Book which would be specific to your county location. My relative knew his mother was Lucinda, but she died when he was a baby, and he was raised by his loving step-mother Nancy. So in the county book he never mentioned his real Mom, only talked about his father and Nancy. Now Nancy was born in NC, his real mom was born in IN, in all the many lifetime of census records for him, he always states his mother's birth place was IN. This means he was truthfully well aware he was not the son of Nancy b. NC, but yet the book says that. So you can never believe a book, even thought the family was interviewed for the book. People lie, people forget, people change facts, etc. In conclusion, don't believe anything until you have studied it this way and that, and have understood the family, and confered with others, and feel comfortable with the facts of the case. Be prepared to find out that there are birth, marriage, and death certificates which are wrong, or partially wrong. Be prepared to find Wills which won't name your relative, yet you know they should be named. Be prepared for anything. Don't get nervous, or worried, this is a fun hobby, we can't make it a science, it is an art, and it won't all fit into a nice neat box. There will always be rough jaggedy edges we need to smooth down. Best regards, Lilly Martin