Eventually, I will return to the puzzler of the week; I'm getting closer. The yard sale is over and have the auction of my Mom's house Saturday and a lot of paperwork to go. Thanks for bearing with me! As a little tip of the week! When you are looking for your ancestors on the census records starting with the 1850 census (the first one that listed names and in order as they were questioned), do you just look for your ancestor and ignore everyone living around them? On the earlier censuses, it is a little more difficult as many census records showed the names in a semi-alphabetical order but it would pay to scan those also. You might be missing some important clues. Two of the most obvious are the following: 1 - When a man had children; he often deeded acreage of his land to his son or daughter when they married or as he neared death. Check several houses (farms) around your ancestor and jot down the names. Are these individuals the right age to possibly be a married child? If you have the ability, run the deeds on a few of these neighbors and see if a connection pops up. 2 - Many times, in earlier days, entire neighborhoods moved together to a new area. They could be members of the same church and coming here to establish a new church; friends from the old neighborhood. Many times when people moved from Virginia or other states, they came in wagon trains together - for safety, for friendship - and for family. Some of those other unknown people in the wagon train could be married daughters and their husbands; parents, grandparents, cousins ... So, I would recommend that you write down or photocopy those neighbors and stick them in a file as a ?? to be investigated on a rainy day. Have a great day! Sandi Sandi's Puzzlers: http://www.gensoup.org/gorinpuzzles/index.php Sandi's site: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/