Connie and Pat, I found Connie's post of today re. the parents of Matthew CREWS absolutely fantastic. First, let me say that I have had very little info. on Matthew CREWS other than the sworn affirmation of Constance "Conny" CREWS that she personally knew Mary Whicker, widow of James WHICKER. The document is quite long so I'll jump to about the middle of it & quote portions pertaining to Matthew CREWS. It says "deposeth & swears that she is intimately acquainted with Mrs. Mary Whicker who has sworn to and subscribed the foregoing declaration, that she has known her from childhood, they to wit, the applicant & this afficant, were children and girls together, living only 3/4 mile apart--that she, to wit, this afficant, was present at the marriage of James Whicker and Mary Dean, now Mary Whicker, the applicant, and saw and heard the ceremony which took place at Dobson's Crossroads (now Kernersville) by Wm. Dobson a Justice of the Peace in and for Stokes County, N.C. that this afficant and her husband Matthew Crews, and one Betsy Swain, went together with the groom and the bride to the wedding that the said persons are all dead except this afficant and Mary Whicker the applicant who is well known to me to have been the lawful wife of the said James Whicker and has remained his widow ever since; that she remembers the battle of Guilford, and heard the big guns that it was currently reported and believed that the said James Whicker was in that battle--that she well remembers about that time the tories came to her father's house and took her father John Whicker, prisoner and carried him to the British Camp--they also killed all his cattle. She has been acquainted with James Whicker, from the time he came to Stokes County until his death, that she always heard that he was a soldier in the war, and never heard it disputed that he was in the war & served as stated by his widow in the foregoing declaration. I also swear that I am not interested in this Claim. Witness: Mary M. Fulp. Signed, Conny Crews. Sworn to & subscribed Aug. 13th 1858, R. Mutchison, JP State of North Carolina, County of Forsyth. " In a nutshell, this was in regard to Mary Wicker's declaration in order to obtain a Bounty Land Warrant & Pension. There were others who made similiar affirmations as to Mary being the widow of James and knowledge of James being in the war etc. etc.You will note Constance (Cony)signs using the surname CREWS but based on the belief she married Reuben CREWS, Sr. with Matthew already being deceased, she would naturally use the surname Crews in lieu of Whicker. Conny Crews earlier in her deposition stated she was 86 yrs. old. As for Ephraim & Rachel being the parents of Matthew...I certainly would not contest the fact that they were not! In fact, in light of the dates Connie gives in her post as to the birth dates of Ephraim's children, I do not see how it would be possible the Ephraim & Rachel would be the parents of the Matthew Crews in question here. Yes, Connie, I think you are correct in that someone is confusing the Matthew men. No doubt there were more than one and someone picked up on the will of the Ephraim will & assumed the Matthew it named was the husb. of Constance Wicker or something. Just didn't check it out far enough & passed it on as fact. This is the first time I have been able to have dates re. Matthew & his parents outside of the document referred to above. THANKS CONNIE!! I shall remove Ekphraim & Rachel as parents of this Matthew & hope everyone else concurs. I apologize for the length of this post. Hazel