As long-time listers may know, I am perpetually searching for my Great-Grandfather, John R. Avery, and I am wondering if anyone can help. I have, thanks to a lovely Brooklyn lister, got references to him living at 811 Eastern Parkway in the city directory for 1907. I also have some later years for him, all at the same address, including after 1910. I have also got a baptismal certificate for his second son which lists his name as John R. Avery. My Great Grandmother is living at 811 Eastern Parkway in the 1910 census with my grandfather, whose name is listed incorrectly as John Stanton AVERY born 1903(He always used Robert John Avery and the index to birth certificates on the Italiangen website lists him as Robert John Avery.) His brother, Clifford Avery, is listed as Benedict. Their mother is listed as a widow and head of household. Either the directory is wrong for the very latest years, or the census is wrong, because it is indeed the same address. I have checked the microfiche records of deaths reported in NYS outside of the city and not found a likely candidate. I have not found him on a birth, death, or marriage index at the Italiangen website. I have not found Sarah Quigley there either - she had a cousin close to her in age, and I have found the cousin, but they seem, as far as I can tell, to be two different people. I find numerous mentions of his wife as Sarah Avery, including in her mother's obit. Her mother was buried from the Eastern Parkway Address later in 1910. What I cannot find is any prior reference to John R. Avery in any census, in the Old Fulton Postcards, in any record on Family Search or ancestry or any place else. I have looked just for John Avery. He was older than my great-grandmother, who was born in 1872-1874 timeframe. To add confusion to the matter, the house was built in 1905 and does not appear on the 1905 census - there is what seems to be a blank block, which fits in well with a row of brownstones being built. On the 1905 census I do find what seems to be Sarah at home with her parents - however, the children are not with her, and both were born by then. Obviously I need the birth certificate, which I do not have in hand yet, and obviously a trip down to look at the records of who has owned that house might be useful, but what I am wondering today is whether some kind soul with access to any newspapers other than the Brooklyn Eagle, the NY Times, the Fulton Website, would be willing to do a search for me to see if the may is lying dead somewhere. Or alive somewhere. Or living in Oklahoma accused of bigamy - I am digging here, not judging, and whatever the answer is, I think that after a good 100 years we can all live with it. The family stories about him are a huge bundle of contradictions. For what they are worth, here is a short list: He was from Glasgow, Scotland. He was from a Long Island family, which family was in banking. His family objected to his marrying my Great Grandmother, because she was a "shanty Irish Catholic." No hint as to which of the three might have been considered the worst insult. He may have changed his name from something else to Avery because of his family. If he did, he probably changed it from something beginning with a B. (Why, oh Why, Great Grandpa, could you not have changed it from something with an X, which would have been so much easier to find? If you changed it. If, indeed, you were not an alien on vacation from the Mother ship the entire time...) He was an "older man" to my great grandmother. He owned stone yards in Brooklyn and Philadelphia, and died due to an injury in the one in Philadelphia (I have tried checking records in Philly, and no luck so far there. No idea how far out of the city a stone yard might have been.) To complicate matters, there were certainly not only quarries near Philadelphia, NY, but also plenty of Averys. And to further complicate matters, of the 9gazintabillion men named John Avery, at least half seem to have had wives named Sarah. And, most recently, my mother informs me my grandfather said he was 'Scots-Irish." In what technical or non-technical sense of the term Grandpa may have meant it I have no idea. Thanking anyone who has even read this far, never mind bothered to look, I am constantly grateful for the things people do on this list and teh wealth of knowledge people pull from to help me when I post. Eternally grateful, Theresa