My great grandfather, William M. Gentry, served as a private, Co. C, 2nd Regiment, North Carolina Volunteer Infantry (Union), according to his tombstone. My mother's family has his discharge papers, but I have not seen them. I do know that they were a source of great embarrassment to my uncle when he was a little boy in a small Tennessee town. He wanted to take them to school until he found out that his grandfather was not a Confederate! (The small town was Franklin, site of one of the Civil War's bloodiest albeit indecisive battles.) I have had scant luck tracing this Gentry family. William was born in 1842 in Marshall, Madison Co., NC, although I believe that Madison Co. had not actually been formed yet. According to his death certificate, his parents were George Gentry, born TN, and Nellie ?, born ?. However, in 1880 William reported both his parents as being born in NC. William died in Asheville, Buncombe County, NC on Jan. 18, 1926. He may have had a sister named Ruth. He married Mary Margaret "Polly" Brooks, a widow, maiden name Baley, mother Elizabeth ?, father ? Baley, on Feb. 11, 1866, in Madison Co. I have been able to find this family only in the 1880 Census but not earlier, and the TN State Library and Archives does not have NC censuses after 1880. Although my family and his death certificate indicate his middle initial was "M.", he is shown in the 1880 census as "W. R. Gentery." William and Polly's children were Wyatt, born abt. 1872; Jefferson, born abt. 1873; my grandfather Zebulon Beard, born 1875; Christopher Columbus (also shown as Crisley), born abt. 1877; Emma, born after 1880; Henry, born after 1880 or possibly the same person as Jefferson above; and Jessie May, dates unknown, died in early childhood. Polly also had two children from a previous marriage. A son, James R. Brooks, b. abt 1863, is shown with them in the 1880 Madison Co. census. Also listed in the 1880 census with William's family were Molley Gentry, 8, a niece, another Crisley Gentry, 18, no relationship shown, and C. Seigs, 17, no relationship shown. Not only can I not find this Gentry family in any other census, I cannot find the correct Baley or Brooks family. Any help appreciated. Sara Binkley Tarpley