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/iIB.2ACI/948.1 Message Board Post: Shirley, I was looking at the 1880 Census, and could not find Alvin B. Sweet. I thought perhaps he'd died, so I checked for a possible widow, Harriet. The following popped up, and I wonder if "B. A. Sweet" could be your Alvin B.: 1880 US Census, Prescott Township, Faribault Co MN: B. A. Sweet self white 63 b. NY farmer Par: NY/NY Harriet Sweet wife white 52 b. NY keep house Par: NY/NY Charles Sweet son single white 22 b. NY At home Adella McDonald dau married 18 b. NY At home A. C. Barnes grandson 6 b. MN Par: NY/NY Wm. Wallace male other 81 b. NH Par: NH/NH M. Marquette male other b. Prussia Par: Pruss/Pruss Davis Cleaveland male other b. NY Par: CT/CT Some reasons I thought this could be your ancestor: [This B. A. at age 63,would have been born in1817] [Prescott Twp. is just to the east of Verona Twp....Verona is where my ancestors settled.] [You mentioned a son, Charles....and this family has one. The dau., Adella, mentioned here would not have been born yet in 1860, and I wonder if the older children had grown/married, and moved to their own homes.] [The grandson has a last name of Barnes, so an older dau. must have married a Barnes.] Four households down the list in the 1880 census, same township, is Alvin Sweet self age 22 b. WI; and wife Malissa Sweet age 20 b. IA. No children. However, the census states this Alvin's parents were born in NY and WI. He is also the same age as Charles.....could the boys have been twins? Or maybe just born 10-11 months apart, I suppose. Or maybe this Alvin isn't related. I also have a book from 1976 with reprints of old 1886 plat maps in it. In Prescott township there is an A. B. Sweet, Sr. in section 11, and an A. B. Sweet, Jr. in section 21. It's interesting that the paragraph next to the map says, "By 1860 there were only 14 persons in teh township [referring to Prescott] and but 42 acres of improved land. In that year a number of persons holding claims in Prescott were living in Verona and Winnebago City townships." (you mentioned your Sweet family lived in Verona.) Hope this might give you a new clue. Margaret