If you are having difficulty with the 1876 census, there are two possible reasons: They do require Adobe Acrobat. Is that installed? If not, you can install the free software from the link on that page, or at the same link here: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html Some web-tv products lack the hard drive to download Adobe Acrobat Reader and cannot use files produced with it. Second, some files are long. The amount of time required to load varies with the connection and the computer. Until the file loads, the page will appear to be blank.

Another fabulous resource, Mable. Thank you SO MUCH! I have a question-I found my West families in Porter. Is there a map online that will tell me where Porter is located? My 4th g-grandpa Annas West had 193 acres, and his sons had hundreds more (for a total of more than 500 acres), so another question would be, how large is/was Porter? Thanks again! Meg Gentry Bookout in CA

There are maps for some dates. Unlike geographic townships, these political townships change as population increase. There were originally seven. Each was roughly a seventh of the size of the county. There are now 26. Because of the (impossible) attempt to equalize the number of voters per precinct, the territory of the four townships in Nixa and the four in Ozark are smaller than those in the national forest. Of the original seven, only one retains exactly the same name, Linden. The history of township names, etc. is on the transcribed records website, under where in Christian county is that. Porter included the town of Nixa.