Put on another pot of coffee - this is a long one. The ice finally melted so I went to play at the courthouse today. First we learned that no one can agree on how to spell Mom's name. I was able to locate three death certificates from children who croaked in transylvania County after they started keeping records (The state anyway, not necessarily the Galloways) Rufus McLelland Galloway b. 08APR1868 Wolf Mountain Daddy - Clifford Galloway Mommy - Panata Owen Died Boyd twp - 14OCT1940 - Chaleocyntitic(?) acute with stones and jendice Buried Enon Samuel Roscoe Galloway b. 14FEB1884 Jackson County, NC Daddy - Clifford Galloway Mommy - Pernetta Owens Died Hogback twp - 05DEC1964 - Heart Disease Buried Macedonia Cemetery Wed (no middle name) Galloway b. 14JUL1887 Jackson County, NC Daddy - Cliffoed(their typo) Galloway Mommy - Pernelia Owen Died Cathey's Creek twp - 07NOV1966 - Carcinoma Prostate Having determined that rufus had the same parents we all thought he had, I thought I would double check the marriage record to make sure Clifford's nuptials were correct. Remember, we all have the little note that Clifford Galloway married L.P. Owens 08JUN1864 in Transylvania County. Guess what cousins? NO MARRIAGE RECORD!!!! not in 1864, not ever in Transylvania County. Do remember that There was a general dislike of paperwork back in those days, so it may not be as bad as it sounds. I bopped down the the library where there is a transcription of the marriage bonds to check there. Apparently, somewhere along the line someone found that an marriage bond was issued on that date and wrote it down as a marriage and this has been passed around and around. Good lesson in why we all need to be careful. The marriage date is blank. I checked Transylvania Beginnings where there is also a list of the bonds. There are four columns: Groom; Bride; date BOND was issued; then other stuff like bondsman, witnesses, and the actual date of marriage. Whoever started this off, looked him up, saw a date, and didn't notice that all the other folks had an extra date in this fourth column. In case you are wondering, M.Mason was the bondsman & J.H. Duckworth was the witness. Back to the original mystery. Why is Pernetta (or whatever her name was) with her Daddy in 1870 instead of Clifford? Who the heck is Hester who is living with Clifford? (Hester isn't even a common name in the area/time). And where are the two oldest boys, Milford & Rufus? These questions will probably only be answered by some sweet little old lady in Wolf Mountain, and I really need to visit Aunt Pearl (actually double first, double second cousin twice removed or something like that & no inbreeding involved!) One other factor to consider. Pennetta O Galloway & Clifford Galloway are not buried together at Macedonia, though Pennetta's headstone mentions her husband. Clifford died first. He died in 1915 and is buried next to a child's grave with a fieldstone. His son, E. Phylar died two years later and was buried next to him. That pretty much filled up that space, so I think that the separation was primarily once of logistics. But certainly Pernetta was likely in a position to insist that the remaining space beside her husband be left for her if she really wanted to be there. The child buried next to Clifford may be the missing Catherine. As for Clifford's age. His tombstone was originally stamped with the birth year 1864 - the same year of his alleged marriage. It was then changed to 1845. This suggests that whoever ordered the stone was working off that same bad marriage info and got the dates confused. The only records for his birth are census records, none of which agree. This birth date is likely derived from a census record or other family calculation similar to census record and may not be exactly right. That should keep you all busy and out of trouble for awhile. -- Linda Hoxit Raxter http://www.rootsquest.com/~alextree lraxter@citcom.net Western North Carolina Cemeteries and More! American Local History Network - Transylvania County, NC Coordinator Related to at least half the county at least once ; )