Melanie Here's the information on the Fry(e) families I have. 1860 Census: William Fry is 33 years old, his wife Angelina is 30. Their children are Mary - age 9, William - age 6, Frank - age 4 and Harriett - age 1. William was born in England. Angelina and all the kids were born in Illinois. That tells us William came to America on or before 1850 since Mary, the eldest was born in Illinois. Samuel does not appear in the 1860 Census. 1870 Census: William Fry(e) is 51 (??) years old and Angelina is 48 (??). (Guess they aged fast in those days!) Mary is 19, William Jr. is 16, Frank is 14, Harriett is 11, Samuel is 8, Eliza is 4, Lucy and L(u)vina (twins?) are 9 months old. Samuel Frye is 51 years old and his wife, Mary J. is 46. Their children are Caroline age 17, Jonas 15, Elizabeth 13, Samuel 8, William 6 and James is 2 years old. Samuel, Mary J. and all the children except James were born in England. James was born in Illinois in 1868. From this we know that Samuel and his family came from England sometime between William's birth in England in1864 and James birth in 1868 in Illinois. Thus, Samuel does not appear in the 1860 Census. 1880 Census: William Fry is 60 years old and Ann (Angelina?) is 58. Still living with them are Mary 28, William Jr. 26, Samuel 20, Lucy and L(o)vina both age 12 and Henry age 5. Living with them in dwelling # 117 is Harriet Mead age 18 and Eliza Fry age 13. Harriet L. Fry married Chancey J. Mead on November 25, 1878. Questions: Harriet is moved back into the home of William's family. What happened to Chancey? Eliza Fry is listed after Harriet; sort of like an after thought. How come such a difference in age listings? Were they just guessing? Frequent changes in spelling of names. Census takers wrote down what they heard. Ages can vary a couple of years depending on what time of year the census was taken, but 10 years is too much for William and Angelina between 1860 and 1870. (Was Henry really born when Angelina was 53 or is he the offspring of one of the other siblings?) What happened to Samuel? I checked several townships around Rivoli, where they all were in 1870, but haven't found him yet. He's in my notes and I'll watch for him. Hope this will fill in some blanks. George Carpenter Illinois City, Illinois Incidently, I now have CDs of the Mercer County Census (and many other counties) from 1830 thru 1920. 1870 is the only one that is indexed. The others are hard to search and read. Some of the early censuses list only the head of house and the number of persons dwelling therein. The 1890 Census is not available. It was destroyed in a fire. ----- Original Message ----- From: melanie brown To: gcarp@qconline.com Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 9:17 AM Subject: Frye--McLain Now I am looking for Samuel Frye(Fry) in Mercer Co. He was Mary Ann Fry McLain's father. She got married in 1867 to a Thomas Kenney. So maybe on 1860 census. Do you have that? He would have been born in England, I'd say before 1836. We found a William but his daughter ended up being Mary Elizabeth. Thanks again for your help Melanie