This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Farris, Moore, Gebhard Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/GeV.2ACEB/242.573.1 Message Board Post: Ethelyn, This is intriguing, to say the least. By Catherine Farris, do you mean Nancy Catherine (Moore) Farris, my great-great-grandmother? Who exactly was your great-grandfather in Oregon? If we are talking about the same woman, isn't this your family, too? I have long suspected that James Farris died between 1880 and 1900, and the family scattered. The only record I actually found for the Farris family in Cedar County, Missouri was the marriage record of his son Horace, in 1891. At that time Horace lived in Ottawa, Franklin County, Kansas. James appears in the 1870 and 1880 censuses of Cedar County, but the family is not in the 1900 census -- not in the same township, at any rate. James was listed as a real estate agent in 1870, and as a lawyer in 1880. In Cedar County there was a James Farris who passed the Missouri bar in 1872 and served as a prosecuting attorney. This much is in the county history, but no real evidence links it to my James. At the time I was visiting the Cedar County courthouse (June 2002), I was told by the staff that they didn't have bios of the various county attorneys. There was no probate or estate record. Ida Viola Farris born about 1873 did indeed live in Arkansas. My mother, who was named for her, wrote to her at Cotter, Arkansas around 1940. At that time Aunt Ida was married to a Miller. Franklin County, Kansas also has a marriage record for an Ida V. Farris of the right age who married a Joseph Adams at Ottawa in 1893. I have yet to find proof that this was a first marriage for Aunt Ida and she married Mr. Miller later on. My mother mentioned a mysterious "Uncle Thad" who died in the 1920s or 1930s. Her cousin's family went to visit when they heard he was sick, only to arrive and find that they were too late. As the cousin phrased it, "We went to see Uncle Thad, but he was a dead one on the way." No one is quite sure whether Uncle Thad was a Gebhard or a Farris, but there is a website listing a Thaddius as child of my James. I do not doubt the existence of a Thaddeus in the family, as my grandmother's brother was given the middle name of Thaddeus. Older family members seem to think that Uncle Thad died in Indiana, however, and that is where my great-grandfather August Gebhard lived before coming to Kansas. I know that Nancy Catherine (Moore) Farris was living in 1919, as my grandmother had a four-generation photo. It showed Nancy Catherine, Anna Laura, Alma Zetta (my grandmother), and Almeda Viola (my mother). Mother was a baby in this picture, sitting up by herself so probably no more than 8-12 months old. Her next sibling was born in March 1920 (Mother was born Oct 1918), and Grandma doesn't look pregnant in the picture. So, it had to be late summer/early fall of 1919. As the other three lived in Franklin County, Kansas, Nancy Catherine may have been on a visit at the time the photo was taken. I am certainly interested in any information you may have on this family, including the photographs. If you would like to email me directly, just click on my name and you'll find my addy. Thanks, Alma