In a message dated 1/9/99 8:07:31 PM, bcarcher@earthlink.net wrote: <<1) My ancestor may have left Wisconsin under a cloud and avoided the census for fear of detection. Suggestion: check legal records in Wisconsin. >> I believe this may have been the case with my grandfather, who left Wisconsin, following the Civil War, and went to Custer County, where he homesteaded in the early 1870s. He left a wife and family in Wisconsin, and then married again when he got settled in Nebraska. His wife in Wisconsin listed herself as a widow for the rest of her life (until 1925, although Grandpa didn't die until 1932). She KNEW he wasn't dead, because members of her immediate family also homesteaded with him, and they continued their friendships until their deaths. His marriage license to my grandmother says he was divorced, but we haven't found a record of it YET. That's not to say it isn't in some county between Wisconsin and Nebraska. Did you know that there were county and/or state census records for the off- years in some cases? I found this to be the case in Custer County, where the Census was taken in say, 1875. Good luck, and just be aware that many, many men just up and left their homes and families, went West, and started all over. It was easier than sending home for the old ones, I guess. Bad joke? Wayne Montgomery