My Lupo family was in Houston and Dooly Counties, Georgia from the 1830s through the 1850s. Between 1855 and 1860, my great-great- great grandfather, his brother and his son who was my ancestor moved to Florida. When the war broke out, my great-great-grandfather returned to Georgia to enlist and was killed in battle in 1863. His widow received a salt ration in Dooly County, Georgia in 1864, so apparently he brought his family back with him when he returned rather than leaving them with his father's family. From that point on, until the 1880s, my great-great-grandfather's family and that of his father and uncle disappear completely from records. I have seen records which suggest that one of his brothers and his cousins who remained behind in Florida and where the right age fought in regiments there during the war, but there's also an individual who may be his brother, but who's identified in some records by a name I've never heard used in connection with this brother. By the 1880s, his mother, brothers and sisters were back in Dooly County. But I have no idea when and where his father died, or where his widow was living or what became of his daughter who was age 5 on the 1860 census but disappears after that. My great- grandfather turns up on the census in 1880 living in the household of another family and ten years earlier, his brother could be found on the 1870 census in the same household but I cannot find their mother or sister in 1870 or 1880. In 1880, I've found her mother and sisters living together in the same district as my great- grandfather, but many households away, but she's nowhere to be found. She receives a widows' pension in the late 1880s or early 1890s, but by this time her sons have married and she's nowhere to be found. What little information I have from family sources came from my great-grandmother but was filtered through older cousins as she died a few years before I was born and it's been somewhat inconsistent. To track them down, I've looked through census records, land records, will and estate records and church records in areas they inhabited and haven't found any mention of them. My father used to tell me my great-grandfather owned a 100-acre farm in Dooly County and other family members have confirmed this, but I've found no deed records on the purchase. An older cousin has told me that my great-grandparents met when my great-grandfather went to work for the uncle of my great-grandmother, but I can't find any evidence that this uncle even lived in the same county during the relevant time period. In addition, my grandfather was a carpenter and appears to have learned the trade from an older cousin who my father, aunts and uncles vaguely remember, but when I requested the death certificate on this cousin, I didn't recognize the names of his mother and father and can't definitively connect them to my family. Could anyone suggest other avenues of research? The best evidence I have suggests they all returned to Georgia eventually, as that's where they're all living by 1880, but I cannot find any of the sons of my g-g-g-grandfather's brother, or the family of this cousin my grandfather worked with as a carpenter. Having the 1890 census would be a bit of a help as the cousin was born in 1883 and living on his own by 1900. Another problem is that there seem to be too many Lupo males running around who can't be definitively connected to my family, though evidence suggests they were connected somehow -- in many cases they're practically living next door to one another, but can't be connected by census or estate records. Any advice would be deeply appreciated. I've recently been requesting death certificates on anyone who made it into the era of death certs who I feel is connected and this has helped somewhat but in some cases it's left me with even more questions. Matt Lupo -- G. M. Lupo a.k.a. matt at lupo dot com Up on the hill, they think I'm okay Or so they say... "G. M. Lupo" <deaconblues@steelyspam.org>