I wrote this question, and got the two answers below. Can anyone else clarify? Does "bound to" mean these folks came here with an agreement to some number of years "servitude" for a certain person? Does anyone know how many years that was, or anything else about that? Thanks, Karen Hart Anthony First answer: In the cases Robert wrote about, the "bound to" means the souls mentioned were--in today's terms--"standing up for" the person who was getting the marriage bond. They weren't going into servitude. Levey (Levi) and Henry Hart belonged to separate/different Hart families. All the rest of the Harts on his contribution were related, cousins to each other, descended from one of the five third-generation brothers. Second answer: Hi Karen, yes...these were children that could not be cared for by the parents and were "bound out" to different families in exchange for room & board. They had to work for these families and "earn their keep". William was 11 years old when he was bound out...that was probably about 1835-1836. I have a detailed account of William and the family he went with, but know nothing about the other children. His story, "Billy the Bound Boy" used to be on-line, but I couldn't find it. I have it on a disk someplace, plus I have it in hard copy.