Penny, The 21 years difference in age for Mary and John Emmens made me wonder if the match was correct. Such a difference really wasn't too uncommon at the time, especially in second marriages but always catches my eye. William Thaxton was a 1st cousin 5 t removed. From the 1880 census I got a dau Lula, is this the Lusetta that you mentioned? And is this just another example of enummerator error? I know what you mean about the various spellings even within the same document, one of my lines is Kesinger and all 33 different spellings of that name. Tom.