Hello List members. I am Jay R. Smith of Toledo, Ohio, and I am brand new to the List. I surely would NOT bug you if I was not in dire need of help. My 3 sisters and I (youngest being 59, oldest 72) are trying to establish the maternal portion of our family tree, before we start dying off. To that objective, I desperately need to gather information about our maternal grandfather (birthdate, birthplace, parents names, siblings, etc., etc.), and I honestly don't know what to do next. I do know I cannot afford Ancestry.com !!! Grandfather was Joseph B. (Benjamin ?) BLANCHARD, born 1848/50, as deduced from a 1900 WV Census document, wherein he declared his birthplace as North Carolina. No Idea where in NC, though. Gates Co., has been suggested, but from the limited navigation I have done on the web of there, it has yielded nothing. I DO know that he was in Cabell County, WV., in 1879 because that is when, and where, he married his first wife, Hester Brown Wilson BLANCHARD, on 4 December. She died in 1889. He then remarried my maternal Grandmother Ella BLANCHARD, in 1892/93. Joseph & Hester produced 3 children, and Joseph & Ella produced 3 children, the youngest of which was my Mother, Wilma BLANCHARD, born 12 July 1906, in Fayette Co., WV. My second oldest sister, (also Wilma) avows that Mom told her that Joseph & Ella split up at some point after my mother was born, and he returned to (and died in) North Carolina, where he had been a master of slaves (so I presume he went back to his old homestead) since he was warmly greeted again by some former slaves that had worked under him in years past. After the split of Joseph & Ella, Ella spent the rest of her life in a sanitarium in Blackwell, VA (Henrico County, I think) since my Mom is census listed (at 14 yrs old) as a boarder with a family in Henrico Co., VA. Did Joseph travel from NC to Blackwell, VA. to see Ella ??? Would you have ?? I would !!!! Please List, help me, if you can. Respectfully, Jay R. Smith, Toledo, OHIO

Hello Jay, This may be your guy: 1850 Gates Co NC census, page 48 (stamped), September 16, 1850 Josiah Blanchard 30 NC Sophia Blanchard 28 NC Emily Blanchard 8 NC Joseph B. Blanchard 5 NC William Blanchard 1/12 NC I suggest going to the Gates Co NC web site (I assume there is one) and see if they have the indexed 1860 census available so you can check for him then. If not, consider requesting a 1860 census lookup from the NC Census Lookup List. Eldon mailto:ewade@cfl.rr.com List admin for SC-Old96 Researching: WADE, HAMES -----Original Message----- From: J.r. Smith [mailto:jayrsmith@buckeye-express.com] Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2003 8:25 AM To: NCROOTS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [NCROOTS] Help Desperately Needed; Hello List members. I am Jay R. Smith of Toledo, Ohio, and I am brand new to the List. I surely would NOT bug you if I was not in dire need of help. My 3 sisters and I (youngest being 59, oldest 72) are trying to establish the maternal portion of our family tree, before we start dying off. To that objective, I desperately need to gather information about our maternal grandfather (birthdate, birthplace, parents names, siblings, etc., etc.), and I honestly don't know what to do next. I do know I cannot afford Ancestry.com !!! Grandfather was Joseph B. (Benjamin ?) BLANCHARD, born 1848/50, as deduced from a 1900 WV Census document, wherein he declared his birthplace as North Carolina. No Idea where in NC, though. Gates Co., has been suggested, but from the limited navigation I have done on the web of there, it has yielded nothing. I DO know that he was in Cabell County, WV., in 1879 because that is when, and where, he married his first wife, Hester Brown Wilson BLANCHARD, on 4 December. She died in 1889. He then remarried my maternal Grandmother Ella BLANCHARD, in 1892/93. Joseph & Hester produced 3 children, and Joseph & Ella produced 3 children, the youngest of which was my Mother, Wilma BLANCHARD, born 12 July 1906, in Fayette Co., WV. My second oldest sister, (also Wilma) avows that Mom told her that Joseph & Ella split up at some point after my mother was born, and he returned to (and died in) North Carolina, where he had been a master of slaves (so I presume he went back to his old homestead) since he was warmly greeted again by some former slaves that had worked under him in years past. After the split of Joseph & Ella, Ella spent the rest of her life in a sanitarium in Blackwell, VA (Henrico County, I think) since my Mom is census listed (at 14 yrs old) as a boarder with a family in Henrico Co., VA. Did Joseph travel from NC to Blackwell, VA. to see Ella ??? Would you have ?? I would !!!! Please List, help me, if you can. Respectfully, Jay R. Smith, Toledo, OHIO ==== NCROOTS Mailing List ==== NCGenWeb list of NC genealogy links: http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncgenweb/list.html

Hi Jay, A little more to add. If your Joseph B. Blanchard isn't in the 1860 census index I would not assume he isn't really there. As an example, he wasn't in the 1850 index I use but I was able to find him by digging deeper. Indexes are far from complete. Good hunting, Eldon Hello Jay, This may be your guy: 1850 Gates Co NC census, page 48 (stamped), September 16, 1850 Josiah Blanchard 30 NC Sophia Blanchard 28 NC Emily Blanchard 8 NC Joseph B. Blanchard 5 NC William Blanchard 1/12 NC I suggest going to the Gates Co NC web site (I assume there is one) and see if they have the indexed 1860 census available so you can check for him then. If not, consider requesting a 1860 census lookup from the NC Census Lookup List. Eldon mailto:ewade@cfl.rr.com List admin for SC-Old96 Researching: WADE, HAMES -----Original Message----- From: J.r. Smith [mailto:jayrsmith@buckeye-express.com] Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2003 8:25 AM To: NCROOTS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [NCROOTS] Help Desperately Needed; Hello List members. I am Jay R. Smith of Toledo, Ohio, and I am brand new to the List. I surely would NOT bug you if I was not in dire need of help. My 3 sisters and I (youngest being 59, oldest 72) are trying to establish the maternal portion of our family tree, before we start dying off. To that objective, I desperately need to gather information about our maternal grandfather (birthdate, birthplace, parents names, siblings, etc., etc.), and I honestly don't know what to do next. I do know I cannot afford Ancestry.com !!! Grandfather was Joseph B. (Benjamin ?) BLANCHARD, born 1848/50, as deduced from a 1900 WV Census document, wherein he declared his birthplace as North Carolina. No Idea where in NC, though. Gates Co., has been suggested, but from the limited navigation I have done on the web of there, it has yielded nothing. I DO know that he was in Cabell County, WV., in 1879 because that is when, and where, he married his first wife, Hester Brown Wilson BLANCHARD, on 4 December. She died in 1889. He then remarried my maternal Grandmother Ella BLANCHARD, in 1892/93. Joseph & Hester produced 3 children, and Joseph & Ella produced 3 children, the youngest of which was my Mother, Wilma BLANCHARD, born 12 July 1906, in Fayette Co., WV. My second oldest sister, (also Wilma) avows that Mom told her that Joseph & Ella split up at some point after my mother was born, and he returned to (and died in) North Carolina, where he had been a master of slaves (so I presume he went back to his old homestead) since he was warmly greeted again by some former slaves that had worked under him in years past. After the split of Joseph & Ella, Ella spent the rest of her life in a sanitarium in Blackwell, VA (Henrico County, I think) since my Mom is census listed (at 14 yrs old) as a boarder with a family in Henrico Co., VA. Did Joseph travel from NC to Blackwell, VA. to see Ella ??? Would you have ?? I would !!!! Please List, help me, if you can. Respectfully, Jay R. Smith, Toledo, OHIO ==== NCROOTS Mailing List ==== NCGenWeb list of NC genealogy links: http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncgenweb/list.html