At 03:26 PM 8/4/98 -0600, you wrote: > Hi I just got the 1870 census for Benton county. I am looking for >Porter. They had a son born in Urbana in 1865 and I know they were there >afterwards. But, I have looked at Polk Township and cannot find them. Am I >looking in the right place?? > Any suggestions??? >marcia porter heinz > Marcia: I always check surrounding townships. (I have done the same thing - looked in Polk first, but then found my relatives in Benton Twp.) The Polk/Benton border is irregular (due to the river?) and Polk Twp. is bigger than Benton Twp. The other Benton county townships which neighbor Polk are Taylor and Harrison (at least on the 1874 map). And if neighboring townships aren't the answer, I check neighboring counties (if it's feasible.) They could have lived just over the county line in Linn Co. (to the east) or the county to the north (is that Black Hawk county?). You say they had a son born in Urbana in 1865 - was he born in Marysville or Manatheka (the "forerunner" towns that become Urbana in, what, the 1890s)? Perhaps the birthplace is Urbana in your family's oral history, but they lived over the border and actually got counted in another township or county. I also have relatives who supposedly had a child in Benton Co., then one in Tennessee, and then returned to Benton Co. Perhaps your PORTERs just weren't in Benton Co. for that census. Or didn't get counted. In the worst case, maybe it was Urbana Illinois! Good luck! Kent waysonkw@mail.milwaukee.k12.wi.us "In an ideal world the management understand when & why, the developers understand what, and the dba understands how. In the real world, the dba does all three." :0( - guy ruth hammond