Odd story to tell. My grandfather William Joseph Carter, Sr. was born 18 Jan 1901 in Somerville, Middlesex Co., Mass. Or so he believed thats where he was born. When he was 4 to 5 years old, his mother died, he did not remember her name, but believes it could of been Mary. His father, bonded out, or gave guardianship of the children to local or area farmers. The children were raised by other Families, and worked on their farms for their room and board. My grandfather believed that he came from a family of 9 to 11 children, some of the names of his siblings could of been, Henry, John, George, Mary and those are all he could remember. He thinks there was twin siblings also. He left Massachusetts before 1920 and headed to a southern state with an older brother. The older brother went back to Massachusetts and my grandfather hoped a coffin truck heading to California. Upon arriving in Phoenix, Arizona. The coffin truck hit a bump causing my grandfather to fall out and break his leg. He was laid up in Phoenix, and thats how he met my grandmother, Dorothea Louise Lindner. He ended up marrying her and living out the rest of his life in Arizona. He thought his fathers name was Ovide or Orville and he thinks his parents were of French Canadian Descent. Looking for anyone who would know this story and the family which my grandfather belongs too. He died in 1986 and we began searching before 1979 for his long lost family. Census records has been checked for 1900, before he was born and we cannot place him within any of the families that was there. We checked the 1910 census in hopes of finding which farm he lived at. But there is about 40 or more blank/ water washed pages of that census. Therefore we did not find him listed in the 1910 census either. 1920 census would place him in another state, which we do not know what state or if he was even put on the census. Our only hope of finding his family, is that someone will recognize the family story as having lived it or heard the story told themselves. Long shot, but sometimes they work... Thanks for any help.. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.