> Sandra, I have used about every spelling I could think of for > Puffenbarger. > My husband has a great grandmother who was adopted and in her marriage > application in the 1890s said her parents were Benjamin Oates and > Elizabeth > Puffenbarger and she was born in Lewis Co., WV. Since the GGmother may have been born to non-married parents, she may have had her mother's surname of Puffenbarger or she may have had her father's surname of Oates. But searching for her father as a Puffenbarger is unlikely to find the correct family. I have an extended family situation in the late 1800's that sounds similar (different names and different states) in which the births were not recorded. In that situation the young woman became pregnant (obviously) but the families wouldn't let the couple marry because one was Catholic and the other wasn't (per a direct descendant). I do know that when the Catholic married it was to a Catholic, and the Protestant married a Protestant. I found that the child used his mother's surname when young, but took his step-father's surname when the mother married (he was never formally adopted by his step-father). It took a marriage announcement in a newspaper online to find the mother (and son) when she married. It is a long shot, but another resource you might want to check. --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]