Howdy again cousins. I think I answered the roll-call in the wrong format a few days ago so I'll try this again. I am trying to locate or properly identify which of the many James Irvin/Ervins was my gggrandfather. He was probably born in NC, and was in SC at some time prior 1850. He had three sons with his first wife. Her name may have been Elizabeth. He died in Homeguard or Senior Reserves in the Civil War. Three sons were: 1) James Jr? A Civil War Vet, died in a home for Confederate Veterans in Raleigh abt 1905 according to a letter my grandfather remembered but the letter was later lost. 2)John Ervin, as spelled in the 1870 Haywood County NC Census, also a Civil War Vet, moved to Haywood County with wife Sarah in 1867 during the reconstruction, brought his younger 14 year old brother with him. 3)Robert Irvin/Ervin/Erwin,my ggrandfather, b. 1-15-1853 in McDowell County,d. 1922. His mother died at or near his birth, thus orphaned and raised by an aunt or granny, Mahala Irvin, during the war.(Ref McDowell County Census 1860). An elder in this home was Lemira(or Lemaney) Irvin, born in Va. abt 1791. Robert was later brought to Haywood County with older brother John above where , in 1874, he married Nancy Cathey, dau of George W. Cathey and Mary Hargrove Cathey. George W. Cathey was son of William Cathey and Hannah Dyer Cathey. Returning to James above, father of these three men. He re-married according to my ggrandfather's story in 1855. In the McDowell County marriage Bond records is the marriage of James Irvin and Elizabeth Jarrett, dau. of Killian Jarrett, in 1855. They had two children before James went to War which matches my ggrandfather's account that there were children of several Irvin families in the home and two younger ones were his half-brother and sister. According to the 1860 Census of McDowell County, this would have been Eliza and Alfred Irvin. Eliza visited my ggrandfather Robert in 1885 then went on to locate Robert's brother John who had moved from Haywood Co NC to Tenn in 1883. Now if this is not confusing enough, when my ggrandfather, Robert, married Nancy Cathey in 1874, the marriage license lists his father as James Ervin and mother as "Elizabeth" and no maiden name given. So this could refer to either his real mother or step-mother. Robert's sons began using the spelling Erwin and Ervin in the 1890s, and thus my father has always spelled his name as Erwin. Other surnames I am researching for which I have good information back to the 1700s are CATHEY, LONG, HARGROVE/HARTGROVE, MANN, HENRY. Also beginning research in MacFRADY/FRADY, CARPENTER. Thanks, Ed Erwin, Arden, N.C.