This message has appeared on the list. I have written my comments below: Hello List. I am hoping someone can help with the questions below regarding DAVID OLDHAM and MARTHA "Patsy" TATE. Dear Judith, Thank you for all of the work you have done on the Tate line. I am related to them through the Carr line. I have been working on Martha O. Tate, b. abt 1818, d/o William Tate and Martha Wynn. I have found Martha with her husband David Oldham on the 1850 Madison KY census, ED 2, pg 285b, #588, with children Nancy, Nathaniel, William and Jesse. Living next door is Abner Oldham and his wife Hannah and two children Helen and Miranda. I have Martha [Patsy] Tate and David Oldham on the 1860 census, KY, Madison, W. subdivision, pg 49, White Hall P.O., #341. Nathaniel is not there and Martha, b. 1852 is. I have been researching this online - ancestry.com. and am very confused. There is a David Oldham married to Susannah P. Chenault. I have them on the 1860 census, KY, Fayette, ED1, #429, Lexington P.O. pg. 54. D.D. Oldham, 48, S.P. Oldham, 43 and A.M. Oldham 16. I think this may be the Anne everyone says they had. But then who is that Anne married to C.M. Wallace that is listed with them? Caleb Wallace married Anne Wallace according to what I found online. MY David doesn't have an Ann to marry Caleb Wallace. You have been researching this carefully for a long time. Surely you have come up against this problem. My David is next to Abner and Hannah in 1850. But this other David married to Susan is supposed to be their son. ??????? Please help me out here. Response from E.W.Wallace Online research can help in your genealogical pursuits, but NOT all the answers are on the internet--and, indeed, not all the answers to most genealogical questions can ALL be answered. As my genealogist/lecturer/author/librarian friend says, No genealogy is ever complete!!! We genealogists still have to revert to the old fashioned ways, and there are a number of guides to help you. Rootsweb has some lessons, CyndisList has some lessons, and familysearch.org has some lessons. One mistake is made with Oldhams in Kentucky--who are plentiful!!! Everyone assumes they are all related. Another Oldham researcher and I have discovered they have different origins, at least in later days after they left Virginia. If one's ancestors are those Oldhams who are chiefly in early Madison Co., KY, (perhaps Boonesborough and later) then the researcher needs to know that their origins prior to KY migration were Caswell Co., NC, formed in 1777 from Orange Co., NC. The earliest I have found Jesse and his probable brother James Oldham is ca 1763 in a land grant for James Oldham in Orange Co., NC and for whom Jesse Oldham was the chain carrier. Then, there is another Oldham family clustered around Louisville, KY who seemingly have different roots--there seems to be insufficient information in colonial Northern Neck Virginia to connect them with the group in North Carolina. Those Oldhams in Louisville and surrounds came directly from Virginia to Kentucky. We have reason to believe that Jesse Oldham of Madison Co., KY, who died testate ca 1814 in Madison Co., KY, was earlier in Virginia [before North Carolina], probably somewhere near what is now Fauquier Co., VA, which was formed 1749. (Formation of counties is always critical in your research.) He is listed as one of the militia men in 1755 in the Second Virginia Rangers [I am typing this from memory and stand to be corrected] under Capt. John Ashby, who is found later in Fauquier Co., VA, as are many of the surnames of the men in that company. This was the French and Indian War--remember that war that preceded the American Revolution? (In other words, Ashby and men were fighting for the British against the French and their allies the Indians.) You will find this reference to Jesse Oldham in Lloyd D. Bockstruck's book--Virginia's Colonial Soldiers, published years ago by Genealogical Publishing Co. (see note below) Probates, court records, and land records (deeds), particularly for Madison Co., KY are reliable sources for sorting out some of these families. I do wish I had more time to really study the deeds of Madison co., KY. I found that the Family History Library has films of the grantor and grantee indexes (as well as films of many deed books) which are typed and alphabetized. Oh, yes, and the deeds which are indexed are arranged chronologically. One wants particularly to look at those deeds which say *Hrs* for heirs; &c for *and others* and Commissioners deeds. The commissioner was appointed by the court to help a family distribute inherited property (and probably had other tasks as well--such as helping settle family disagreements), etc. Jackie Couture has compiled and had published by Heritage Books the early court records of Madison Co. I was in a waiting room the other day and started going through her books page by page, and discovered some family information which had puzzled me for a time. The widow of a Harris had remarried, and that was why the marriage record was confusing. I also discovered from those court records that the deceased and his widow had three surviving children, a fact I had not known heretofore. Yes, my dear--there is a LOT of *stuff* on the internet, but don't let that source be your only source. If you are working, then, of course, your time to research films and books is quite limited, but you can make yourself some *to do* lists for when you have time. In the beginning, when I was still working, I figured I could spend some of my allowance, not on Starbucks which was not around when I was working, but on hiring a researcher in Frankfort, KY, and he introduced me to the value of COBs--court order books for Kentucky. I thank him, even though he is long gone, for introducing me to the value of these court records in Kentucky and Virginia research--and wherever else I can find such records. I have a number of Kentucky counties to research. Oldhams are most confusing--probably not they themselves, but because there are large gaps in some Virginia records--enough that some lecturers make good fees by lecturing on Virginia's burned counties!!! Kentucky is luckier in that respect, although I have bumped up on a burned county or two in Kentucky!!! Best of luck to you. I believe Abner Oldham may be linked to the Jesse Oldham family, but I deviated in my research, because my more immediate Oldham was a lady, who had two husbands. And her youngest daughter, my ancestress, was taken to Texas by her husband!!! So, for the most part, my Oldham ancestry search in Madison Co., KY stopped with the beginning of the Civil War. E.W.Wallace Here is a description taken from the Family History Library catalog of some of the contents of Bockstruck's book on Virginia's colonial soldiers: Contains county military rosters [1677-1775], muster rolls for King George's War 1739-1748, records for the French and Indian War 1754-1763 and Dunmore's War 1774, militia miscellany (petitions [1742-1775], Hening's [1756-1765?], Virginia records in the Public Records Office in London [1701-1702], Draper manuscripts [1742-1774], county & misc. loose papers [1644-1787?]), bounty land applications [1779-1780], bounty land warrants [1779-1783?], and courts martial records [1742-1767?].