G'day Michael, I went and had a look at the cemetery records I had. I also also double checked the other two sources I had for James D(aniel) Estes. From the cemetery records there's only evidence of one James D. Estes and from the apparent placement of where he is buried he looks to have been the son of Coleman Estes. The two other sources (ie: not the cemetery listings) each only give one James D. Estes, but to different parents. The one which gave him as the son of Coleman also appears to be the more carefully researched one, so I'd say the other is wrong. So .. I think there was only the one James D. Estes and he was indeed the son of Coleman Estes. Ok. Now for the problem of the "wrong wife" you mentioned before. I'm not sure this is really a problem! >From the cemetery listings, buried next to James D. Estes was a Frances A. Estes, 1851-1915. You say your James Daniel was married to Frances Alexander .. I'd say "Frances A. Estes, 1851-1915" was her. The "A" standing for her maiden name .. a common practice was to put the initial of a wife's maiden name on her tombstone .. thus Frances Estes nee Alexander would then appear as "Frances A. Estes". The fact that they are buried side by side is also a pretty good indication they were married! Especially since their births were so close .. so can't be father and daughter. That leaves the "mystery" of why several of James' children as buried with the inscription " .. of JD and MF Estes". The simpliest and most logical answer to this is that Frances was in fact M(ary?) Frances. It would not be the first time someone used their middle name .. something her grandson, James Russell also did. So combining what you gave from the obit's in the bible along with the cemetery records (**) we have: : Coleman C. ESTES (1813-1864) b&d.Maury Co, TN : +Sarah Elizabeth MATHEWS; 1840, Maury Co, TN : . James Daniel ESTES (1848-1907) b&d.Maury Co, TN : . +M. Frances ALEXANDER (1851-1915); d.Maury Co, TN : . . Cora ESTES (1876-1882) of Maury Co, TN; d. Maury Co, TN : . . girl ESTES (1877-1878) of Maury Co, TN; d. Maury Co, TN : . . Annie ESTES (1878-1882) of Maury Co, TN; d. Maury Co, TN : . . girl ESTES of Maury Co, TN; to Williamson Co, TN : . . +Robert JENNINGS; bf.1907 : . . Mary Alexander ESTES (aftr.1885) of Maury Co, TN : . . +William Knox DUNNANVANT of St Louis, MO; aftr.1907; to SF, CA : . . Nollie ESTES (aftr.1885-1924) b&d.Maury Co, TN : . . +Harry HILL : . . James Russell ESTES (bf.1895) of Maury Co, TN; d.44yo : . . Wilburn ESTES (abt.1885) of Maury Co, TN; d.50yo Notes: I've got Mary A. Estes marrying after 1907 since she's listed in her father's obit as not being married. Since she and Nollie were both unmarried at the time I'd also estimate that they were aged _under_ 22 in 1907, hence that they were born after 1885. Since JR served in WWI, he was presumably about 20yo or older in the mid 1910's, hence he was likely born before 1895. As for Wilburn, he was your g-grandfather you say. Unless you are exceptionally young for a genealogist, counting back the generations gives Wilburn's dob as around 1885, which fits in neatly. Are your grandparents/parents still alive? It might be worth asking them if they have any recollections of family history .. especially dates. I would hope your grandfather (if alive) would know what year his father died! From the number of generations, I'd say you were born in the 60's or 70's? Much earlier would be pushing Wilburn's dob back too far for him to be the s/o James Daniel and Frances Estes. If I knew what year your father was born and whether he was 1st, 2nd etc child (or even the same for your grandfather), I could make better estimates. Actually, re JR .. you said he worked on the panama Canal. That was built during the years 1904-1914. Assuming he was about 20 when he went there to work, that'd make him born between 1884-1894. No latter since he'd be too young to have worked at building the canal in it's last year of construction. So likely "about 1890". ** Incidently, the graves are located in the "Estes Cemetery", Halliday Farm, Mt Pleasant Pike, Maury Co, > James Daniel Estes, born 1848 25th october, 1848. From his tombstone. > wife Frances Alexander Estes, married daughter Mrs. Robert Jennings > of Franklin (Tenn.), daughters Mary and Nolie .. His married daughter is noted as being married, but not the other two, indicating they were unmarried when he died. > J. Russell died of a heart attack at the age of 44; I'm still trying > to track down a date for that. His obit stated he was a veteran > ofWWI, and had previous military duty in the Philippines as an > officer in the regular army. Which is consistent with him being born around 1890, maybe a few years earlier since he was an officer and they were often older than "grunts" .. so died around 1930. David. -- I bless the day I met you and I thank God that he let you lay beside me for a moment that lives on and the good news is I'm better for the time we spent together and the bad news is you're gone. - "You're Gone", Diamond Rio DC2.D A+++! L^ Pfwl Bfl Fo R+++! Ac+ J-- S++ Fr+++! I+ H++ $ M V+++ Cag http://xenon.triode.net.au/~dragon mailto:dragon@triode.net.au