You wrote: Looking for information on my ggfather W.F.(Franklin) Wortman m to!)Florah Hudson 1876 in N.C. 2) Mattie Francis 1886 in N.C. 3) N.S. Putnam 1899 in N.C. Frank Wortman was born ca. 1853, d. 1912 in Broughton Hospital, buried in Cleveland County. He had three known children Lon(Alonzo) Wortman b. 1880 d. Dec. 26, 1939 buried in Cliffside Cemetery, James Clingman Wortman, my gfather, b. Dec 17, 1884 d. Nov. 27, 1937 buried        Zoar Church, Shelby, N.C. and Mary Wortman. Looking for any information on his mother M.A. (Patsy) Wortman b. ca 1820(&) and his unknown father. Thank you Jane Wortman Hill Dear Jane: Has anyone told you about the FREE 1880 census which is online at <A HREF="www.familysearch.org"> www.familysearch.org</A> A lot of your family members were living in time for that census. Since Wortman is a rather uncommon name, I would search for that surname alone and then enter the state--in the search questions. This 1880 census is useful in that it asks each person enumerated where his/her parents were born. This may lead you to a new locality to search for your family. Be sure to get the details, and also check the neighbors. Frequently, they were relatives--in-laws, cousins, uncles, etc. There are many misspellings in this 1880 census, both by the census-taker and the transcribers, so do not confuse the computer with too many search parameters. Also, play around with other links on that website. There are some research guides for every state in the Union, plus many European countries, plus, increasingly for the Pacific Rim countries, etc. You may discover some new places to research. By the way, marriage records, death records, birth records are cataloged under Vital Records on the Family History Library catalog. The link to the catalog is on the lower right. Click on it and do a surname search, and also a locality search. You may find someone has contributed some material to FHL concerning the Wortman family. Happy hunting. E.W.Wallace