My mother's maiden names was Holmes. She grew up in a huge, poor family in Louisiana. Her father (William Henry Holmes) was born in Ohio (we think) on October 8, 1848. His father must have died early because he and his brother threw their stepfather into the snow and left home (we think) when he was 8 years old. They cutoff from the family, never to return. He was in the Civil War with his brother who may have been named John (not sure). My mother thought he (William Henry) perhaps was courtmarshalled for shooting someone who did not halt when he called for them to halt. After the war, the two young men fell in love with the same woman. My grandfather lost and cutoff from his brother. He married someone (we think in Mississippi) and she died. Later on, he came to Louisiana where he met my grandmother, a widow (Ellen Catherine Whitehead Langley). They had a big family, which included two sons: William and Richard Lafayette. Richard Lafayette Holmes was brilliant, earned a ThD, did post doctoral studies in Hebrew at Yale and was in Who's Who in clergy. Most of William Henry Holmes' offsprings like school...poetry, theology, and art. I would love to find his family. There are several attorneys and physicians among his offsprings. Monette Gossett [email protected]