Well, I'd like to know if there is a connection between your NOBLE and Sarah NOBLE m. John NORTON, very early settlers of the area from Brawby, Yorkshire England. My Bureau Co Surnames (so far) are NORTON (yea, I know...the Norton's founded the first Methodist church in Neponset ...my great great grandfather Robert Norton was killed by a falling tree in Barren Grove and left his wife Mary Robinson Norton and 9 kids behind), NOBLE and the eternally lost WOODWARD...from there the Woodward wandered over into Henry Co (if anyone thinks their relatives might have done so also, let me know...I'm the Henry Co ILGenWeb Project County Coordinator and may be able to help) My Bureau CO line relation goes like this John Norton m. Sarah Noble (gggg grandparents) Robert Norton m. Mary Robinson (ggg grandparents) Mary Methilda Norton m. William Henry Woodward (gg grandparents) Richard Woodward m. Eliza Lamb (he was raised in Bureau, married and settled in Henry Co) (*great grandparents) Any takers???????? At 11:20 PM 6/10/98 -0700, Matthews wrote: >I just joined this mailing list last night. I got two indirect responses - >one of which turned out to be a surname (Maxwell) for someone that married >my fourth cousin and the other surname (Pratt) sounded familiar but was not >in my database as a relative. > >OK folks, sounds like there is a 50-50 chance so far that I'm related to >your ancestors/relatives in Bureau County either through blood or marriage. >Shall we put it to the test just for fun? Some of the surnames are ABEL, >ALBRECHT, ANDERSON, FINDLEY, FORDHAM, FREASE, HEATON, IODER, HENSEL, NOBLE, >STEELE, ZEARING and there are some marriage connections to ELDRIDGE, >WILSON, SCOTT. There are plenty more that I could list if I wasn't so tired >right now. I spent a good part of my first 20+ years in Bureau County. My >ancestors were among the very first settlers. Meet my challenge...send me >your Bureau County names! Only sure Bureau County names count in this test! >We'll see if I can keep up to 50-50 relative ratio! > >I don't know how many people are on this mailing list but I will be visiting >family in Bureau County later this month and am willing to TRY to do some >look-ups at the library (in the OBIT files, marriage index, Bureau Co. >Republican microfilm). Just sent me specific names and exact or approximate >dates soon and I'll see what I can do. I won't be going to the court house >this trip so please don't request birth certificates, wills, etc. that are >normally found in the courthouse files. We'll see if I'm ambitious or crazy >by the number of responses I get. > >Linda Matthews > > > > >