This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: LaFon, Dyer, Jones Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/SSB.2ACE/1849.1 Message Board Post: I've been researching this line since my grandmother was Francis Izor LaFon Dyer and my mother, Connie Dean Dyer Jones. According to the Orr family info at http://members.prestige.net/wmborr/5_lafon/bio1280.htm the following is said of William LaFon: William LaFon & Juliann William LaFon was born about 1787 and his wife, Juliann, about 1791-95. We know very little of their origin. About all we are sure of is that both spoke German and Juliann could speak little English. William is said to have called himself "The Dutchman." His sons and grandchildren referred to him as "Grand Sire." For a detailed list of his Descendants, go to the LaFon Line [http://members.prestige.net/wmborr/5_lafon/lafon001.htm], or return to Orr Family & Allied Lines [http://members.prestige.net/wmborr/index.htm]. One story, recalled by Tennessee relatives, was that William came from Holland. However, clues from the census reports indicate that both William and Juliann might have been born in North Carolina and that their parents were foreign-born. We are reasonably sure that William and Juliann (spelled Julia Ann at times) were in North Carolina for several, if not many, years. Whatever their origin, they were in that State at the time of the birth of their eldest son of whom we have a record, in about 1820. William then would have been about 33 and Juliann about 25-29 (a little old for her first-born, in those days). At least four sons were born to William and Juliann in North Carolina - Fredrick 1820, Lewis 1822, Emmanuel 1826 and Jonathan 1831. Sometime between 1831 (the birth of Jonathan) and 1847 (the birth of Lewis' first son) we think that William, Juliann and the four sons all moved to or near Henry County, Tennessee. There, the boys apparently settled down and started families. In 1859-60 (after the birth of Fredrick's fourth child but prior to the 1860 census), William and Juliann moved to Texas with Fredrick, and his family, settling there in Johnson County. Within a few years (after the birth of his nineth child in 1864), son Lewis followed with his family, also settling in Johnson County (before the 1870 census). Stories of William, recalled by the Tennessee relatives were that "two of his sons stayed east of the Mississippi River and two went west .." The 1870 Census found William, age 83, and Juliann, age 79, still living with their son Fredrick, who had by that time moved across the Brazos into Bosque County, Texas. We are not sure how or where William and Juliann lived out their last years. We think Juliann died about 1875 at age 84. William, however, is said to have lived to age 104, placing his death at 1891 - outliving his sons Fredrick and Lewis by about 10 years. We assume that William resided, during this final period, in Johnson and Boxque Counties with his grandchildren.