On Wednesday, April 12, 2006, at 05:48 PM, Ms. Fields wrote: > Not to argue, as I agree tombstones are NOT always correct, but there > are 2 other possibilities for your father's uncles name showing up in > the 1870 census > > 1- They had a child by that name in 1870 who did not survive and > named a later child the exact same name. (I've found this suprisingly > often in my research) No, succeeding censuses tell me that this is not the case here. > 2- He lied to his family about his age. I've found this extremely > common, even on marriage licenses and census records and such. I don't know what happened in this case. He was the baby of the family, and his parents left him their land in exchange for being taken care of in their old age by him. This he apparently did. Six of his seven siblings outlived him and then expected to get something out of the property finally, at last! Surprise, surprise! Unbeknownst to them, he had sold the property to a neighbor and had probably already spent the money he received from it. I guess they were disappointed for the second time, LOL. > Again, sometimes you just have to go with the > best evidence you have and note it in your sources that it conflicts > with other evidence. Sometimes a tombstone is all the evidence you > have and sometimes you'd thank your lucky stars if you could find a > tombstone!