List Readers, Am just getting back into genealogy hot and heavy after a prolonged case of "burn out". Yesterday I was going through an inch or so pile of stuff I took off the list a year or more ago and decided I just had to get back on this list. I hope Jeanne, Peggy in Michigan, Larry Drane, Carol Askey and some of you old timers are still around! A real puzzler surfaced that I need help with. In the inventory of William HARBIN/HARBEN's estate on 6/27/1733 his nearest of kin are listed as James Vilars Lode_____ and John Harben. Now John would have been his 22 year old son, but I'll be darned if I know who the other guy is, or what that name was. I think it unlikely that he is a brother or a son (could be but not from what I know about William so far), so who else would be considered nearest of kin? The oldest daughter would only have been 20. The other puzzling thing is the name Vilars. William apparently remarried between 1722 & 26 and his new wife Mary is said to have been a Villers, but I am inclined to think that was based on the fact that a son b in 1731 was named Edward Villers. But if that is so, why wouldn't they have used the name in kids between 1726 & 31? I haven't found any Villers in other records I have searched (and I have searched plenty!) Does anyone have any ideas? Has anyone come across a name beginning with LODE_____? I don't remember if probate records are kept at the county level or not, but if they are, could someone take a gander at it (Liber 17, folio 275 or Box 9, fldr 9) and see what they think the name was? Please, I can use all the help I can get. Joan Marie in Oregon