This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: LaFayette, Hofus, Keiffer Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/5k.2ADE/1248 Message Board Post: Looking for early history of the LaFayette family from Jackson County. The 1850 census shows a James LaFayette (age 61 and born in Canada) married to Mary (age 48 born in Mass.) with 5 children (ages 8-24, all born in Illinois). Second son, John, age 22 was my ggrandfather (I believe). Family records show he married Mary Ann Hofus and had 10 children, including my grandfather. There are 4 Hofus children shown on the 1850 census, aged 6 to 20 and all living with different families (none of them Hofus). They were all born in Pennsylvania. Did their parents die and the children were subsequently farmed out to neighbors? Would like to determine when Jim LaFayette came to Iowa (by using pre 1850 census's) and try to determine if they came from Illinois (where the children were born) or direct from Canada. Any help would be appreciated as I live in New Jersey now. Doing family tree for my future first grandchild due in May. she'll be Welsh so I want her to know her American roots.