Dear Rena.............. There is no mixup in my facts regarding Abner, Rena. I want to remind you that family stories and memories get mixed up and changed..it's like playing Telephone when you were a kid. I have been doing genealogy for awhile and what I have found out is that there is a bit of family information that is right but usually not all. And it depends on the day you talk to people sometimes, re: what they remember. And things change in people's memories over time, too. I had stories from my grandmother about her grandmother's name being Mary and in fact it was Sarah and I am guessing it was Sary. When my grandmother's mother died, her second husband who had not ever met her mother, put "Mary" down as the name and I suspect as my grandmother got old, that slipped in somehow and Sary became Mary. That is the way we humans are..we age or time passes, and memories change. You speak of family history from people who still live in the area as opposed to "cold hard facts." Well, cold hard facts can't change with time. I see no census so far that shows a person Abner's age in David's household. I DO see an 1820 and 1830 census which shows a person Abner's age in Edmund's household. For that matter I do not see a census that shows BOTH John and Joseph in David's household. Although John and Joseph are not my targets here. If they are brothers though, you have to find both of them together. So census records don't change..there they are! And Land deeds are indeed hard cold facts. Where and when and who purchased them. There they are. And depostions taken over a hundred years ago by government officials to ascertain whether a CW soldier's wife is going to get a his pension or not are certainly facts. They are not things that will change. They were attested to and remain as attested. Four people, Samuel's cousin Solomon Bartlett, his brother Edward/Edmund, and his two wives, naming Abner Garrison, minister, as Samuel's (son of Isham's ) uncle, on the spot, firsthand..not passed down and not perhaps misconstrued is indeed factual, Rena. Do you remember when I first asked you about Abner, Rena? I thought he might well be ours..he was in Texas County where my Buckner lived and Abner's daughter married and remained there. And there was a spot in Edmund's censuses for a boy Abner's age...but you told me DEFINITELY he was DAvid's son. So I dropped it. Then we got the Deposition papers on Buckner's nephew...and indeed there was an Abner who was his uncle and who was a minister..who had, in fact, performed the boy's first marriage ceremony. So...a minister..that's a clue. This minister lived in Laclede County during the time that soldiers were starting to be seen, according to Samuel's first wife. Another clue! Ahhhhhh!... ok..I checked a Laclede Census and had a contact in Laclede county check it..nope, no Abner Garrison. Hmmmmmm...ok..I asked him to check land records in the 1860s! Ah ha. There is land purchased in 1860 in Laclede County by an Abner Garrison who was residing in Lawrence County, Ark. ( it says that IN the body of the deed).......now..who is in the 1860 census of Lawrence Co, Arkansas? Well, Abner Garrison who is married to Sarah Jane (Booth) Garrison AND the named children of this man. Now..in 1867 the couple sells their land in Laclede County..signed by BOTH Abner and SARAH JANE. Abner and first wife Charity's son James Floyd and Fereby were married in Laclede and there is also a land deed for them there as well. So Abner and Sarah Jane sell their land and they move to Douglas County, MO. and are listed in the 1870 census there. Now tell me how this can be misconstrued? We have 4 people over a hundred years ago testifying to information that includes the naming of this boy's Uncle Abner...and also the brother gives the name of their father..Isham. And the land records of Laclede County show us who this man is. The censuses support it. Tell me, have you, yourself, ever done any research to prove that Abner and John and Joseph are brothers and that they are the sons of David? I have asked you what evidence you have and you tell me a Bible with Abner, John and Joseph's names written in it. Who wrote it? You told me you do not know. Who gave you all this information anyway? From what I hear it was a woman who married into the family, not an actual Garrison who would have had the history in whatever form passed down and hearing it her whole life. It is easy to write names in a Bible...if it is not a family Bible with all the information given, I do not necessarily trust it is legititmate.Anyone can do it and use it for supporting evidence.And I have heard of that very thing being done. And I am DEFINITELY NOT saying you are the someone! I have before me pages photocopied from one of my Garrison family Bibles and there is lots of information in there..not just the names of three of the children in the family. All of the children and their parents' names and birthdates. So this woman who compiled this information is not a Garrison but was married to your cousin Jimmie, who has actually NOT been in Douglas Co. all his life, but went in the service when he was a kid and was gone for 23 years and not much interested in genealogy either, I am told. Rena, one of the first rules of genealogy is not to just accept information done by someone else and give it out as fact. You MUST research that information with records or censuses to find out if it is true. I have no idea what would make someone make up family research that is not true..maybe they make mistakes. I don't know. But one should NEVER just accept information from someone else and without checking it give it back as fact. And did she give you one SHRED of the hard cold evidence we discussed? I have several friends who are descendants of Abner...they do not buy the information given by this woman. So not everyone in your line does. They do not believe that Abner is a brother of John and Joseph and they are not at all sure that David is the father of any of the boys. Could you please give me the censuses where your DAvid is shown with Abner, Joseph and JOhn in his household? Because I can't find them. I was under the impression that this second issue of the Garrison book is being done to correct errors. I would think that, too, you would want to know what your family's heritage really is. I would only like to have Abner's information correct so as not to confuse generations of his descendants. And I would like your book to be correct. This time of year I would really rather be gardening..my plants are calling to me right now..I am taking this on now because I believe that the Garrison Book is going to be published soon and I am trying to help you straighten out this problem in the descendants of David Garrison. As to Joseph and John, I have done no research on them other than not seeing them in the censuses for David when I was looking for Abner. But personally I think you ought to do some hunting on them, too, before saying that the research is right on them..since if it came from the same person, it is not right on Abner. I assume you all want the information in this new book to be as accurate as possible. The pictures that come out of Jimmie's trunk with handwriting that could be that of his wife who constructed this information? It is hard for even family members to identify old photos from long ago correctly. And I know that for a fact! <<That is why it seems to me there is quite a mixup on the Abners being spoke of?? >> You may be mixed up. I am not. You did tell me you were the one who was redoing the section of the book on David and his descendants when I first wrote and that is why I wrote to you and asked for evidence...which you kept putting me off on and finally I told you to send it when you got time. I do know how that is to get time to do things but I got tired of asking. And I wrote to you when I put together this new information and asked if you had any evidence to refute it and I did not hear from you. Edwanna did send me some information for which I was grateful, but there is no EVIDENCE there. I have the deeds on my computer and I can send them to you immediately but they are not that clear there..I can get them copied and send along with the sections in the depositions that mention Isham and Abner. So if you are going to actually consider them I will do that. Let me know when you get home and send me an address. If you prefer I send the deeds that are downloaded, let me know. That can be done immediately. Thank you for your consideration. Marti