Liz - thank you for your response. i noticed that one boy, John Turner, was indentured to two separate people, a shoemaker and a cooper. was this usual? or did one buy out the indenture of the other? julie ----- Original Message ----- From: Elizabeth Harris To: Tony and Julie Howell Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 3:29 PM Subject: Re: [NCROOTS] Rascoe,Barrott,Turner,Shoemaker,Drew,Turner,Sparkman,Roberson,Dawes,Ward >this may be a dumb question but, at what age was the indentured >child "turned over" to the person to whom he/she was >bound/apprenticed? was it at the time of indenture or when the >child reached a certain age? Probably it was at the time of indenture, and I don't think there's an age limit. One of my female ancestors was orphaned very young and was bound out at age four to learn the trade of a "Mantua maker", which is lace-making. I doubt a child this young would be bound out if the mother was still living and could care for her, but in this case both parents and most of the other children died in an epidemic, leaving only this child and an older brother who was also apprenticed at the time. This was 1760s North Carolina, by the way. -- Elizabeth Harris [email protected] NCGenWeb project: http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncgenweb/ Winston-Salem NC area genealogy: http://users.erols.com/fmoran/