This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Cansler Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/SSB.2ACE/2194 Message Board Post: I'm trying to find out information on my Great Grandmother, Lillie Novella Cansler. She was born in 1863 in Catawba, NC. I've located her name in 1870 census records. In 1887 Lillie gave birth to a daughter, Odessa, who was clearly the product of a liason with a white male. Family lore holds that Lillie's partner was a member of the family on whose land she had been raised. This was the same Cansler family that owned Lillie's parents and siblings prior to the end of slavery. There are a lot of Canslers who owned slaves in Catawba during the early to mid 1800s and I need any guidance in how to narrow the scope of the inquiry. Thanks.