Clark and Ernie Fulton (brothers), descendants of Civil War veteran, James Wesley Fulton, joined us in Salt Lake City. They arrived with an impressive array of research papers and one "burning question": who was the father of their gr-gr-grandfather, James Wesley Fulton (1841-1923)? By the end of the week, Clark & Ernie, coached by research veterans Roberta Hirth, Florence Wolfe, Ann Irwin, and others, had collected an impressive amount of information. But they still could not identify their elusive Fulton ancestor. Roberta and I, aided by Ernie Fulton, Florence Wolfe, and James L. Fulton, Jr., have been puzzling over this question for the past month. We are now going to share what we've found, describe how we found it, and let you in on our evidence and our reasoning. (Roberta made me do it!) As of this moment I do not know the answer. But we are sooooo close. I feel confident we will have the answer (and the proof) by the end of this message thread. Where to begin? Always start with what you know. Clark and Ernie came to Salt Lake City with an impressive six generation summary of their Fulton family. (With sources! Social Security Death Index, Bureau of Land Management homestead entries, birth, marriage, death, obituary and burial records, augmented with personal interviews and recollections. Beautiful!) >From Ernie: James Wesley Fulton "died March 12 1923 at Brighton Michigan." His death certificate states that his father's name was James Fulton. "In James Wesley's Pension papers, I have 2 documents that state his birth date as May 3, 1841, one by him dated May 20, 1912 in Brighton, Michigan, saying he was 71 and one by [his sister] Cornelia M. Sexton dated May 11, 1912 from Sacramento, California, saying she was 75." Cornelia reported that her younger brother was born in Geneva, New York. OK, everyone. If you want a real lesson in genealogy, grab a fresh tablet of paper and some pencils. You won't believe where this is going to take us! Patrice (Fulton) Stark Lone Tree, Colorado