Thanks! I had found the Patches living with the Porter family but hadn't thought about them being relatives of his. Guess I'll check out Mrs Porter and see what I can find. I'm glad to see the marriage record for Sarah. I had found her sometimes, I thought, but never with Emma Jane (who gets called Jane or Jennie in most records), and then she's not listed as a granddaughter but as a domestic servant or housekeeper for the Fones family, which sounded a little peculiar. Seth & Emma Jane moved to Sherman County, Nebraska, where my grandma was born; sometime during the grasshopper plagues they were driven out by the grasshoppers, and I seem to remember Grandma C saying that when they left the farm, they left the plates on the table, covered their heads and ran for the buggy, and just left. Eventually they wound up in Jefferson County, Kansas, but I've never found Eleanor (my grandma) with them, alas..... Eleanor earned her way through school-- for getting her teaching certificate (back in the days when college degrees were not the norm for teachers, but kids still learned to read and spell) at McPherson College in Kansas-- she earned her money by giving piano lessons, and she was a very good piano player; she also paid for her piano that way. I figure that tells me something about what kind of people the Slawsons were. She taught school for quite a few years, married and had 4 kids, and when her husband died, she became county clerk for several years. Then she went back to school and got her LPN certificate. She was one of those people who could Cope. Thanks again. Jan T