I realized that I have not posted about my Granville, N.S. Merritt line to this list (I have elsewhere, though): 1) Nehemiah Merritt, a Loyalist, probably from New York, married Phebe Mullineux in Granville, NS in 1785. 2) James Merritt, born 1789 Granville, married Rebecca Leach. 3) William H. Merritt, born 1822 Granville. By 1850 Census, he is found in Newburyport, Mass., married to an Elizabeth born in N.S. In 1853, he (re)marries Esther Frost, born Yarmouth, N.S. (her family had also relocated to MA) 4) James W. Merritt, born 1851 (mother Elizabeth), Newburyport, Mass. Married Mrs. Sarah Robinson, maiden name unknown. I am hoping that the Granville book I mentioned will answer two questions for me: 1) The origins of Nehemiah, and of his wife Phebe Mullineux. 2) The identity (and origin) of William H. Merritt's wife Elizabeth, which is a major puzzle, because: A) The Frost family genealogy that told me that Esther Frost married William H. Merritt in Newburyport also says his parents are James and Rebecca. B) A probate abstract for Annapolis County in Nova Scotia states that in 1849 a William H. Merritt of Granville was granted guardianship of the children of Cornwall Merritt, based on an 1841 document Cornwall drafted, indicating he wished his brother William to be guardian, naming Nehemiah as his father, and Elizabeth as his wife, and that the three children are Rachel, Haley and Cornwall. In 1861, Rachel and Haley report to the court that their mother has married their father's brother, and the family was moved to the U.S. and their mother has since died. C) Granville Vital Records found on familysearch.com indicate that Nehemiah and Phebe also had sons named William and Cornwall, born 1796 and 1806, and has a marriage record in Granville for William to an Elizabeth McGregor in 1822. It does not have marriage records for Cornwall, or for William H. D) The 1850 Census entry for 29-year-old William Merritt has 29-year-old Elizabeth as his wife, and Rachel, Haley and Cornwall as the oldest children present, each born in Nova Scotia. Three more children are listed after them. E) Another William Merritt from Nova Scotia is found in the 1870 Census for Newburyport, at the right age to be Nehemiah's son (and William H's uncle and Cornwall's brother), married to an Elizabeth from Nova Scotia, and in the 1880 Census this William is found in Merrimac, Mass, at the home of George Merritt, whose age matches the familysearch.com birth record for a George Merritt born to William on familysearch.com. William H. is pretty clearly the nephew of the Cornwall Merritt who is son of Nehemiah, not the brother William, but the presence of Elizabeth, Rachel, Haley and Cornwall in his 1850 census entry makes me think that William H. might have been the one to be appointed guardian and marry Elizabeth, and the children were either told that he was their uncle, not their cousin, or they maintained the fiction. But I don't have the proof I need to show that William H. married his aunt. If the Elizabeth who is there in 1850 is not William H.'s wife, then I don't know who the mother of James is, since it is not Esther Frost. In order for the uncle William to have married Cornwall's Elizabeth, the following would have needed to happen: A) Elizabeth (McGregor) Merritt dies before William married Cornwall's Elizabeth. B) Cornwall's widow Elizabeth dies by 1861. C) Uncle William married a third Elizabeth before 1870 (since he's married to one in that census) D) Nephew William married a fourth Elizabeth, who died (or divorced) before 1853, when he married Esther. I find it far easier to believe that there were just two Elizabeths, than to believe that there were four. Nice little puzzle, isn't it? I just need a couple of marriage records (Cornwall's and William H.'s) to clear it up. Do the "Revised Merritt Records" say anything about this group of Merritts? Rich