Here are a few other bits of info on these three-- still don't know how they might be related (if at all), but it sure looks promising. That an Elijah Coates is in Wilkinson Co, MS just about the same time as Austin is noteworthy. Looks like I'll need to make a trip to the archives in Jackson, MS and really pore over the Wilkinson Co records. **** 1800 Winton (Barnwell) Co, SC Tax List p2 Elijah Coats 252 ac, 0 negroes (Benjamin Hickman on same page, John and Thomas Hickman on p8) 1816 Mississippi Territorial Census Coats, Elijah, Wilkinson Co. Coats, Polydore, Pike Co. [this is Pollard] An Elisha Coats is listed on a petition from the Mississippi Territory (Terr Papers of the U.S., v4, Mississippi Terr., pp501-505) 1819 Wilkinson Co, MS Tax Roll Coats, Austin 120 ac, valued $97.50, on Buffalo [Creek?], 1 white poll *** Justin M. Sanders "I shot an arrow into the air. It fell Dept. of Physics to earth I know not where." --Henry Univ. of South Alabama Wadsworth Longfellow confessing jsanders@jaguar1.usouthal.edu to a sad ignorance of ballistics.