Marti Thank you for answering me back... I did e-mail Rena but 3 heads are better than one! WILLIAM GARRISON (b. abt. 1811-1812) married ELIZABETH ANN KELSEY but I don't know when. Elizabeth went by Ann on all census I could find. Elizabeth was born about 1817 in VA. WILLIAM (per all the census) was born in PA. All family records state WILLIAM'S father was a JOSEPH GARRISON. Family history states he came over from Ireland when WILLIAM was a lad of 7 so that means it the boat ride took place about 1818 or so. It also states there's a good possiblity they were stow-a-ways on the boat. Maybe they settled in PA and just said WILLIAM was born in PA. That's where the stumbling block comes in. I haven't found anything on this JOSEPH or WILLIAM before that. WILLIAM and ELIZABETH settled in PORTAGE CO. OH. Most of their children were born there. ROBERT, ELIHU, HORATIO, ALVIN, LUCIETTE, HANNA AND ELISABETH. The only child born outside of PORTAGE CO. was FRANCIS MARION, who was born in BERRIEN CO. MI. This info can all be verified via the BERRIEN CO. death records. By the way, most of his children went by thier middle name so all the info above took me a good 7 month to decipher. You sound like you've been doing this a lot longer than me. Any suggestions as to where to go next? Thanks for any help given, Helyn