This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/0EB.2ACE/433.2 Message Board Post: As Sandra said, there is no Leroy Crall in the MA VR to 1910 database. Moreover there is no Leroy with a name similar to Crall born in 1847-1849 according to what is recorded in that database. A soundex search for Leroy Crall didn't turn up anyone for a year closer than 1853 and that was a Crowley. A Soundex search for the years 1845 to 1855 for (male) Crall ( in case he was not named at birth) turned up 59 possibilities, none of which looked especially promissing to me. Most were Crowell, a common name especially on Cape Cod, and there were Carrolls, Carles, Curleys, and so on, but nothing that looked to me like a variant of Crall. As Sandra's information suggests, it's hard to find a Crall in Massachusetts in the census or in the vital records. The name is found in PA, where Amos Cook came from. All this leads to the question of what, other than the 1880 census, do you have to indicate he came from Massachusetts. The census is highly unreliable for details such as that. Have you been able to find better information? Have you been able to find anything in probate records, obituaries, and so on that might give names of siblings or other relatives? Could he have been adopted or changed his name? He's listed as a portait painter--could there be anything relating to him in newspapers from the time? Is there a local historical society that might have something on him?