Dear Harkeys, First off, may I ask a favor -- When mentioning births, marriages, deaths, and removals, please attach a date and a place. It's really helpful for people like me, who are trying to get a handle on all the same-name HARKEYs. The less we have to assume or infer, the less room for error. Tim Quarto mentioned the following marriage:-- (Katy) Maria SHINN m Isaac HARKEY abt 4FEB1828. (film # 1760778) Is that a different marriage from the following?-- Isaac Mathias HARKEY m Maria Phillippina SHINN 4 May 1827 Rowan Co. NC. (CD-ROM) I've been looking at the censuses for NC and AR, trying to distinguish the families. This is the only Isaac HARKEY I found in 1830: 1830 census, Cabarrus Co NC (p 199) HARKEY, Isaac 20-30 yr old wife 20-30 yr old 1 male 5-10 yr old 1 male and 2 females 0-5 yr old The older son of this Isaac was born abt 1820-1825, too early to be the product of a marriage in 1827-28. (It's not likely that he was born later than 1825, because he has three younger siblings.) Three possible answers: (1) both marriage dates are wrong, (2) this is a different Isaac, or (3) the SHINN marriage was a second marriage for one of them. The 1850 Pope Co. census lists Isaac HARKEY's wife as "Penny C. M." That could be for Phillippina Catherine Maria (SHINN). Isaac's oldest child, John (m Minerva SHAW), is already 25 in the 1850 Pope Co. census--which still suggests a marriage for Isaac no later than 1825--unless, again, SHINN is his second marriage. The children in the 1850 AR census (combined with Tim Quarto's listing of Isaac's children, and assuming that he listed the older ones roughly in order of birth) indicate that the Isaac in the 1850 AR census is the Isaac in the 1830 NC census. Does anyone have an explanation for the discrepancy between the marriage dates of Isaac HARKEY & SHINN and the age of Isaac's oldest child? Thanks Alma Roark Johnson [email protected]