In a message dated 6/2/2003 9:50:55 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: > Was Nancy Couts related to Samuel Couts of > Benton Co? > > Samuel Couts of Benton Co. purchased (1/9/1841) > N1/2 fractional sec 26 T40N R19W on land now in > Camden/Morgan counties -- right on the Osage > River (which flooded in spring of 1845!!!) I'd > be willing to bet that land is under Lake of the > Ozarks now. > Hi Judy, I don't know the answer to the above for sure. I know there was a Samuel Couts who died 15 April 1855 in Boone Co. Missouri, which is northeast of Benton Co. He was the son of Aaron Couts, s/o Chrisley Couts. Chrisley Couts was brother of John Couts, Nancy Couts Bird's (supposed) father. Which would make her first cousin, once removed of this Samuel Couts. In the 1820 Boone Co. census, in addition to Samuel Couts, there is also a John Bird and a Jesse Bird, according to the Couts family newsletters. I don't have the "numbers" for that John Bird though. Because we can't find any record for John Bird in the Dade Co. area, and only for Nancy in the 1850 census, we have been relying on "old timers" stories relayed to researchers in the 1960s that Nancy Couts and John Bird came to Missouri on "the Trace". A branch of the Natchez Trace crossed through a corner of Carroll County Tennessee, where we know that several of the families that lived in and around Kings Point just over the Dade Co. line probably lived prior to migration to Missouri (ie, Draughons, Matlocks, Brewers, Simmons, Robert Bird in 1860 census, who probably moved to Carroll Co from Robertson Co. TN, a Couts stronghold). I'll have to ask the Couts folks about it. I am curious regarding the document in which you found the Samuel Couts information you cited. Is that a deed book or a land patent? Thanks, Janet

Quoting [email protected]: > I'll have to ask the Couts folks about it. I > am curious regarding the > document in which you found the Samuel Couts > information you cited. Is that a deed > book or a land patent? Janet, it's a land patent -- on the BLM site. Judy