This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: James Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/hMB.2ACI/868.2 Message Board Post: I don't know if the father, Rev. Robert James, was a physician or not. According to "History of Clay and Platte Counties", he was one of several men went to California in 1850. The stories of bad luck from those who went a year earlier were unheeded. All they listened to were the stories of lucky strikes and finds. Robert James wrote a letter to the Liberty Tribune en route and it was still preserved in their files at the time of the books publication (1885). I don't know if it was preserved to the current day. Robert James died not long after his arrival to CA. He died at Rough and Ready in August, 1850. Another site you may try is: http://www.pipeline.com/~richardpence/ The Pence family lived near the old James farm in Clay County and one of his relatives died in CA with Rev. James. Richard Pence has a place where you contact him direct at his site. To call him a genealogist would be an understatement. I know he has info and photographs of the James family. Best of luck. Chuck