I've posted this elsewhere, but since this list is new for me, I'll try here. I'm from Illinois, but my ancestry goes back to Rennselaer Co. Various family members have traced my ancestors there as far back as my great great great grandfather, but at that point we hit a brick wall. If anyone has seen any information on these people, I'd really appreciate whatever you have. My earliest known ancestors from Rennselaer Co. were David Vickery (b. 7 Dec. 1908 or 30 Jan. 1810 - we have conflicting information on that) and Ruth Hoxie (b. 16 Jan 1815). They were married 11 Oct. 1832, but I have no other information about that such as location, etc. The best information I have about them comes from the 1855 NYS census. It places them in the town of Berlin (I take it that's similar to a township out here in the midwest). His occupation is listed as farmer. He owned his own land and had been there for seven years. They lived in a log cabin valued at $25.00. Both David and Ruth were born in Rennselaer Co., according to the census information. We have no information about the parents of either David or Ruth. The census lists their children as follows (birth dates from my records, and census records of their ages show these to be correct): Gilbert B. Vickery (b. 20 May 1834) Levi C. Vickery (b. 4 Mar. 1838) William H. Vickery (b. 7 Feb. 1841) "Edward" Vickery (b. 25 Jan. 1847)--the 1850 U.S. census and other family records show his real first name to be David. John H. Vickery (b. 20 Jun. 1850) Franklin P. Vickery (b. 4 Oct. 1853) By 1860 the entire family had moved to Waldron (now Aroma Park), IL where a number of descendents still live. Family records show a child named Eben, Eban, or Ebena, b. 26 Oct. 1836. There is no record of this person living with the family in either the 1850 or 1855 census. One person doing research suspects this person may actually be a female named Eleanor Alvira Vickery who married James Warren Torrey in Pownal, VT on 12 Feb. 1853. A couple of sources give her parents as being David Vickery and Ruth (unknown). In addition to this, we're also looking for information on Irena Vickery (b. 1803) who m. Jacob Van Der Karr in NY. We suspect she may be an older sister of David Vickery, but once again, we can find no information about her parents. Some clues that we haven't been able to track down as yet: David and Ruth's son Levi's middle name was Culver. We've found burial records for a couple of Levi Culvers in Rennselaer Co. Levi was the only one of David and Ruth's sons to enlist in the Union Army. He enlisted with Aaron Vandecar from Rennselaer Co. We know that Van Der Karr and Vandecar are alternate spellings of names from the same family that came west from New York. Gilbert B. Vickery married Mary E. Swan. Her family very likely also migrated west from Rennselaer Co. David and Gilbert had the same middle initial: B. We've never been able to find out what it stood for, but Gilbert's second son (my great grandfather) was named Benjamin, as was one of his sons. We know Benjamin is a fairly common name in various branches of the family. Once again, if you have run across any information regarding the ancestry of this family, any information would be most welcome by about four of us trying to find David's parents and a linkage to other Vickerys. Thanks. Hal Vickery