Kathleen wrote: "What I do know about Clarence/Count DECKER: he was born 1849/50 in IL/KS ..." You can be fairly sure he was born in Illinois as there weren't too many people living in Kansas in 1849/50. Kansas became a territory in 1854 and a state in 1861, so only a few areas in the eastern part of the state were settled at that point. Wichita didn't exist anywhere near that early. If he was born in Kansas, it was probably in the Kansas City area (which was not then known as Kansas City) or Lawrence, Leavenworth, or Atchison. Check out more Kansas history at the Kansas State Historical Society's site at http://www.kshs.org. Diane Good (my mother was a Decker from the St. Louis area) Topeka, KS