What we know: 1) My husband's grandfather, Charles Raymond LAME (b. ca 1874), was a "carnie" or traveled with a circus early in the century. For a time, his wife also worked with the circus. 2) Charles was raised "near Lincoln, NE", or more specifically, it appears that he was an orphan who was passed around among relatives who had migrated from Montgomery & Boone Co., IN to the areas in and around Saline Co., NE. While searching the area last summer, we went to Fairbury, the county seat of Jefferson Co., NE, just south of Saline Co., and saw a wonderful mural on one of the brick buildings there that depicted a circus scene. We ate dinner that night in Fairbury, and I picked up a brochure at the front desk in the restaurant which described the Campbell Brothers Circus, which was the subject of the mural, and told how Fairbury was it's winter quarters. (Not sure why anyone would "winter" in NE, but I digress...) We had been speculating how Charles ended up in Audrain Co., MO, and later in Pike Co., MO, where he raised his family. It suddenly hit us that perhaps he left the difficult farm life in his late teens to "join the circus". It would have been a way out of a life that he never would talk much about, and possibly the circus contingent traveled by riverboat to its different venues, which could easily put him in the locations in which we could place him. My question: Does anyone know anything about this particular circus, or how one could find out about the people who worked with it a century ago? Where could one find records? Did the censuses count itinerant circus people? Would they be recorded in the winter quarters, or just where they happened to be during a particular census? Any information would be appreciated. TIA Ruth Lame