This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/CFB.2ACI/625.1.2.1 Message Board Post: Dear Betty, Unless there is mention of the children of John and Naomi Ridinger in the estate of the John who married Mary Jane, or it mentions the prior marriage in their marriage application, I cannot prove the two Johns are the same person. However, I think the 1900 census for gives enough proof (99%) for me to conclude that they are the same. Naomi's John was born 1820 and Naomi was born about the same time (1821). Peter was born Sep 1828 with Mary Jane Hess born Jul 1831. Both men marry women about their own age. This is normal for young men and women. In the 1850 and 1860 census' it lists John as born about 1820-21. Upon examining the 1860 census you will notice that list as a child of John and Naomi is a James A. Ridinger, age 6. That would mean that he was born about 1856. Also note the majority of their children would be in their twenties or thirties by the time of the 1880 census. Also, when I search the census for a John Ridinger born about 1820, there is only the one listed for any place in Maryland or Pennsylvania. Where is Peter's brother, if they are the same person? Now, I cannot explain where the family is in 1870, but the 1880 census shows a John Ridinger, born 1820, maried to Mary J. Ridinger with some of the children of Peter and hers living with them. The 1880 census shows the older children of John and Naomi's are married and living on their own. Now, if you will check the 1900 census for John and Mary Jane, you will see two very important clues. First is the question of the number of years they were married. Note that John's first answer was 58 years, making it 1842. This is the same year that John and Naomi were married. Looking at the corrected number for John and Mary Jane, it now says they were married 40 years (1860?). I believe that at 80 years of age, John was a little confused with what was asked. Otherwise this (the 40 years) would disprove this Mary Jane being the widow of Peter as Peter was still alive in 1870. Yet we know from the 1880 census that it was the same Mary Jane as Peter's children were living with them. Finally, you will see that there is a James A. Ridinger living with them. He was the son of the head of the household, not the step-son, and it lists his birth as May 1856! I cannot find a James for Peter and Mary Jane, but John and Naomi did have a son named James A born in 1856! Again, I cannot prove 100% that the two John's are one and the same, but I am sure I could make a good case for it in a court of law. :-) Clayton Spencer