My friends - We will close out this week's data postings with yet another in the Skills Puzzler series. We have discussed the use of tax lists(or "rolls") from time to time here on the List. Our Puzzler today is another exercise in connecting clues to point toward a possible solution or answer. And I should probably say again that in genealogy, there are very few absolutes. Our best deductive methods should be made up of a well rounded knowledge of all of the "little things" that we may find that, held up in single file, do not really tell us anything. But linking the small things together may give us a pointer toward the direction we need to explore. As it has been said, "We should not be looking up our ancestors - we should be tracking them down". This Puzzler is reasonably straight forward. In an 1840 census, we find the man we are researching - Cornelius Knothead. He is shown as a male head of household, in the 50-60 age group. He does not appear in the 1850 census at all, although there are several other Knothead families in the county. We go to the tax rolls and find him there from 1839 through 1844, when he disappears from the tax roll. The county in which we are working is a "burned" county - there are no records prior to the year 1872, except for the marriage book and court minutes in the period 1838-1849, which were saved. The tax rolls are available since a copy was made for the state government. The question before us is this: What happened to Cornelius Knothead? Did he move out of the county in the 1844-1845 time frame, did he die in that period, or did something else happen to him? What do we do to try to determine the answers to those questions? If you want to offer your thoughts on this Puzzler, please feel free to send them to the List, or to me. I'll be back with the solution over the weekend at some point. As usual, there will be no data posts per se over the weekend, but I am working on a cemetery transcription or two, and if time permits, I'll be back with those offerings. I hope your weekend is pleasant and genealogically rewarding. -B ============================================================