This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Paul, Johnson, Hatch Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/EEB.2ACE/477.490.505.1 Message Board Post: Actually, you have missed a few facts. If you look at the 1880 census you'll see that Frances is Thadius' sister, not his wife. She and Thadius indicated their mother was born in VA and their father was born in LA. On what 'earlier' census - and where, as I've been through all of them in Rapides - did you find them living with an old woman from Africa??? You didn't say. Hatch, Thadius 45 M B Farmer LA Fa: LA Mo: VA Frances 48 F Mu HouseKeeper LA (sister to Thadius) Fa: LA Mo: VA Louisa (Paul) 20 F Mu _____ LA (single/widowed?) Fa: LA Mo: LA Augustus (Paul) 15 M Mu LA Farm Laborer Fa: LA Mo: LA Although he was living with his mother in the 1870 census, by 1880 Preston is in his own household. Although Frances lived with her brother in both the 1870 and 1880 census', she indeed had children with Michael Paul. Laws of the time prohibited marriage between their races, but Michael married no other and the children were given his name. On their death certificates their children list Michael as their father. There is indeed connection with Joseph T. Hatch, if you'll note they lived right next door to him in most of the census records (many Rapides families of this time period are found living in clusters). Family lore indicates Joseph paid Frances to raise Lafayette for him, but we have no records. Family lore also indicates Frances was Indian - most Indians of the time were listed as black or mulatto, as it was more undesirable to be considered Indian. The Indian removal movement was still in effect I believe. Lafayette may have been a child Joseph had with Frances or with another woman that left/died and he asked Frances to raise him. We are still searching for more data.