In a message dated 9/17/2004 11:00:43 AM Eastern Standard Time, HESSE-D-request@rootsweb.com writes: I can find my ancestor in the 1860 census, but no earlier. He and all of his descendants carry the spelling Truttier. In the 1860 census he states he is 40 years old and was born in Hesse. While I am aware I need to do more research on this gentleman, I did the usual familysearch.org test (to see if there was a specific locality records were coming from) and not ONE Truttier comes up in Germany (in any state). Hi LeeAnn: If you don't have any luck finding him on the 1850 census (and are sure he was in America in 1850) try looking up some of his 1860 neighbors on the 1850 census. If his name was misspelled, and if the neighbors didn't move between 1850-1860, you might be able to find him that way. Paul C. Miller