Tamara-- Thanks! But that would mean that Benjamin was 10 years old when my great grandmother married him! My great-uncle was born in 1882, so he'd have been a ten year old father! :) Kit ----- Original Message ----- From: Tamara Stevens Sent: Monday, November 18, 2002 5:26 PM To: kitmcchesney@msn.com; NCRUTHER-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [NCRUTHER-L] Marriage records, missing, or never recorded? Kit, Don't count this seven year old out. My great aunt Earlie Splawn (from the same genereal area/circumstances) that married a man 20 years her junior. In fact, she had a son born one year after him. And he was a cousin. So dig a little deeper into this Benjamin that you've found - I'll bet it's him! Here's the entries from Mr. Floyd's wonderful site showing my aunt and her husband and son - Splawn, Earlie S. March 10, 1880 December 17, 1961 Splawn, G. Pender January 6, 1900 June 1, 1969 Briscoe, Elizabeth Lollar June 21, 1905 January 29, 1989 Briscoe, George Gordon March 11, 1901 August 8, 1963 Brisco, Annie P. No Dates Brisco, W. L. April 7, 1861 February 28, 1917 Another interesting story (at least it was to me) is that Annie P. (Splawn) Brisco was the wife of W.L. Brisco, listed above. William (W.L.) was George Briscoe's father. On the 1910 census, George is living with William and his wife of 25 years, listed as his son, aged 9 and Annie has had no pregnancies and no children. George Brisco was always known to my mother as Aunt Earlie's son. So I guess they did whatever they wanted, not worrying about the morality of it because they sure didn't try to hide it! Good luck! Tamara >>I have not been able to find Benjamin in the 1880 census--well, not exactly. There is a Benjamin Bradley in the 1880 census, next door (my theory is that Benjamin and Esther were cousins, descendants of the Thomas and Henry Bradley families--they were brothers, hammermen in the High Shoals Iron Works), but he is recorded as being 7 years old. Given that my great-grandmother-to-be was 23 at the time, it seemed unlikely that he was the right person. ____________________________________________________ IncrediMail - Email has finally evolved - Click Here