While surfing the web I came upon the following web site: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~bogue/aldridge/aldridge.html According to the information on this site Margaret Aldridge was born between 1785-1790. This matches with the Peggy Marcum who was identified living with her son Thomas Marcum on the 1860 Floyd Co., KY census as age 75, thus born 1785. Based on this information, it appears that Margaret Aldridge, who married William Marcum after his divorce from Lydia Sutherland, was previously married to an unidentified man with the surname Muncy before she married James Aldridge. She apparently married James Aldridge about 1810 and James abandoned her and his children about 1820 and left for NC. Since she was without a husband after 1820, that matches with the time she "took up" with William Marcum just previous to his divorce from Lydia. This of course suggests that Margaret's true maiden name was neither Muncy, Aldridge nor Marcum. Also the 1850 Lawrence Co., KY census also provides additional supporting information to confirm that Margaret Aldridge and Peggy Marcum are the same person because her children including Thomas Marcum, Francis Aldridge & Wealthy (Aldridge) Runyon were all closest neighbors on the census. The following is an excerpt from the census: 970 ALDRIDGE, Francis 43 M Blacksmith 300 VA Nancy 43 F VA James 16 M Farmer KY Owen 14 M KY Aaron 11 M KY Harrison 9 M KY Thomas 7 M KY Adeline 4 F KY PREECE, Cornelus 24 M KY 971 RUNYON, Adam 50 M Farmer NC Welthy 36 F VA Arena 12 F VA Salsbury 10 M KY Heriford 8 M KY Alexander 5 M KY Maria 4 F KY Caroline 2 F KY 972 MARCUM, Thomas 20 M KY Jane 18 F VA Elisa 7/12 F KY Of course with any new discoveries I uncover, I also discover other contradictive information. For example, the Lawrence Co., KY vital records shows that on Oct. 28, 1877 Wealthy Runyon died at age 64 of consumption. The record shows her father was James Aldridge, which is a match; however, it also shows her mother's first name was Catherine with no maiden name shown. I don't understand why her mother was listed as Catherine when her mother was suppose to be Margaret. Is this an error? Any thoughts? I understand that this gets confusing. In order to help reduce the confusion of this conundrum wrapped up in a riddle, I will recapitulate below: *Margaret Unknown b. 1785 VA. Husband #1 Unidentified Muncy Children: Unknown Husband #2 married 1810 James Aldridge b. 1785, son of James Children: Rebecca "Betsy" Aldridge Francis M. Aldridge b. 1807 m. Nancy Muncy Samuel Aldridge b. 1811 James Wesley? b. 1815 m. Mary "Polly" Chapman Rachel Aldridge b. 1817 m. William Callaway Husband #3 married after 1824 William Marcum b. 1784, son of Josiah Children: Margaret "Peggy/Martha" Marcum b. 1828 m. William M. Muncy **Thomas Marcum b. 1828 m. Virginia Jane Beavers Possibly other children * It is possible that marriage #1 never took place. The wording of the aforementioned web site suggests that when Margaret married James Aldridge, she did not use her true maiden name on her marriage record, but instead used her previous husband's Muncy surname. Perhaps, the married record suggested she was previously married. I have e-mailed the webmaster to find out if that was indeed the case. It's been too soon to recieve a response yet. I have ran across several examples in my genealogical research where brides used their previous husband's surname when they later remarried. I don't know why they did that. It just makes it harde for their descendants to find them. Any thoughts on why they did that? **As previously mentioned Thomas Marcum died from Typhoid fever in Martin Co., Ky on August 10, 1877, which was only 4 days following the death of his son William from the same illness on August 6, 1877. According to the death record, his son was 18 yrs old, thus born abt. 1859, which matches with the 1860 Floyd Co., KY census which shows him age age 1. The following is an excerpt from that census: #347 Thomas Marcum 32 b. KY Jain 23 KY Eliza 11 KY John 9 KY Polly 7 KY William 1 KY Peggie Marcum 75 VA Dorsey Jude, Jr. (JudeofOh@aol.com) County Coordinator, Martin Co., KYGenWeb & Webmaster of the following web sites: The Martin County, Kentucky Genealogy Portal http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/1692/index2.html The DAVIS Patriots of Virginia (The Tug River Valley Descendants of John Davis, I of Amherst Co., VA) http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/1692/Davis-Patriots.html The House of JUDE [The Frederick (alias Jude) Family Tree] http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/1692/House-of-Jude/Intro.html The MAYNARD Family in Appalachia (The Maynard Family Tree) http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/1692/Maynard-Family/Intro.html