Thank you all for the very helpful replies. Many listers suggested that my ancestor's name would have been a nice touch: He was William T. McManes, A.K.A. McMen. McManners, McMein, McMange, McMain, McManus, McMahon, McMane. (As far as I know, he managed to be consistent with the William.) James H. Kent, jeweller, is listed in the 1860-61 Pierson's directory of Newark as having gone West. He is back in Newark in 1869-70. No proven link, although one of my great-grandfather's sisters did marry William Kent, a son of Herny and Hannah Kent, in Millburn, N.J., in 1872. Finally, I wonder whether "companies of men" as my ancestor's group was described were ACTUALLY companies. That is, with a legal structure that might be recorded somewhere. All the best, Dave McMane