This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Carter, Lassiter, Miller, Wood Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/kUB.2ACE/1920.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1 Message Board Post: Okay, that's good info, so we have to assume that some of the census ages are just wrong. Randolph County census... 1850, Emsley is shown as 14, living with Eldridge and Penina. (Ancestry.com index has him incorrectly listed as Emily) 1860 shows Emsley 24, living near Eldridge with Eliza 18 and Mary 1 Emsley spent the war as a musician with the 44th NC Infantry, was captured and eventually released. 1870 has Emsly 30, with Absala 30, Samuel 10, Columbus 8, and Adalade 4 1880 has Emsley 44, with Abcilla 38, Jesse 13, Rebecca 10, Maggie 7, and Oreanna 5 Forsyth County census... 1900 has Emsley 64, Abcilla 58, Nettie 26, and Maggie Hobbs 10 (grandchild), plus 4 boarders and a cook. (Ancestry has this incorrectly indexed as Coster) Columbus and his descendants can then be seen in the 1900 through 1930 records for Forsyth. I suspect that Nettie was a nickname for Oreanna. The Margaret you have listed would presumably be Maggie in 1880. Abcilla as a nickname for Emsley's wife seems to make the most sense. Unless something unusual happened during the 1860s (deaths, divorce, adoptions), there doesn't seem to be any room for a second wife. Anyway, sorry to run around in circles "proving" what you already know. I'll poke around the Millers a bit and see if anything turns up on Abcilla. Email me directly if you'd like to compare notes on Eldridge and his wives. I'm most interested in the Lassiters, since that's our line, but the Woods are of interest too because they're also associated with Newton and Willis Carter, apparently brothers or cousins of Eldridge. And no, I'm not LDS myself. I just take advantage of the genealogical resources they make available to the public.