Welthy, Thank you for your help. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I never imagined that there were so many Benjamins in the world. The big problem is if she were never married and just moved there away from anyone who knew her, she could be from anywhere. I had thought perhaps from West Virginia, Pennsylvania or Canada. But this is a long way away for a single girl with no family in those days. If I let my imagine run wild, he could already have been married to someone else and helped her get the farm, but couldn't marry her. Uncle Howard did say that Benjamin had a half-brother. She probably had been married and he died just after the war. After all she had a farm. At her age she might have even had more children earlier and he was just the baby still at home helping to take care of the farm. He didn't marry until he was 24. For some reason neither Benjamin nor Catharine Iola talked much about their families, not even to tell their children what their grandparents' names were. Thanks for your help. Maybe this brick wall will crumble someday. Sandy