Hello, I am also searching for a Blankenship. While researching the Shields family of Monroe County, Kentucky I discovered that Zachariah Shields's wife Martha Tadlock had filed a Civil War pension application as his widow in 1883 (Zachariah had passed away in 1863) and she listed a J. J. Blankenship as a minor. I have been unable to link this individual to our Shields line. None of Zachariah and Martha's daughters married a Blankenship. A researcher of this line did alert me to the fact that Zachariah may have had an illegitimate child with a Susan Miles, who appeared on the 1860 census with the family as a 19 year old. She later married a Frank McLaughlin and appeared on the 1870 census of Bullitt City, Kentucky with him. If any of these names appear in anyone's research, please contact me. Thank you. Tobi Shields