My friends - I am dropping by on this Sunday evening to pass along the solution to the latest Skills Puzzler. We had only 12 brave souls who tried this one, and, of that group, only one nailed it solidly. Another subscriber had the solution in mind, but was unsure about it. You will recall that our task was to explain the whereabouts of John J. English, born in Boston, from the time of the 1850 census, until he reappears in his mother's household in the Jackson Purchase region in the 1870's. One of the keys, which many of those who sent their thoughts to me about this puzzler spotted, was the somewhat veiled reference in my narrative to the fact that John was, according to the family legend, an "unruly child". Several in the group felt that he may have been *so* unruly that he ended up in jail or in some type of juvenile court proceeding. It was suggested that prison records in both KY and MA be checked for this possibility. The researcher whose line this was had, in fact, gone that route, with no results. These types of records were much better in MA than in KY in the 1850's, but nothing was found. Tenured subscribers to this List may recall my mentioning, on several occasions, the need to try to place ourselves in the environment of our progenitor when we are trying to determine what action the ancestor may have taken when confronted with a situation requiring a decision. In this case, Francis English, father of John J., was shown as a teamster in the 1850 census, and as a farmer in the 1860 census in KY. Given the fact that Boston was a major seaport in this time frame, it is possible that Francis' work took him into the dock area(a teamster, by the way, was an individual who hired out his team of horses and his rig - in the northeastern part of the US, in a seaport, such men often hauled goods from ships). If we put any stock in the old family story about "unruly" John J., it would be worthwhile to see if perhaps his father sent him to sea. It was not unusual for boys as young as age 10 to be sent to sea. Doing so was considered one way to bring discipline to a child. We checked a number of ships' lists for Boston in this time period, and found nothing. We had checked, however, only ships sailing under the American flag. Looking at other lists, for foreign ships, however, did not produce any results. We turned to the newspaper archives for the area. It was common practice for newspapers to publish lists of ships crews and passengers, both arriving and departing. In 1852, we found a listing for the British bark Glasson. Among the crew was John J. English, who was shown as an apprentice seaman. That designation is unusual, since young boys were usually given the work of a "cabin boy". Later, it was found that John J. served in the Civil War in the regular Navy, and was discharged in 1867, about the time that his father died. He then appears in the 1870 census in the JP, in his mother's household. So, we have a very good idea of what John J. was doing during all of those years that he was away. When we place ourselves into the environment in which our forbears lived daily, it gives us a "leg up" when we start pondering mysteries such as the one discussed here. -B +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++