June: After your reminder, last night I checked the 1860-1880 censuses.... No sign of them in 1860, so these FORTs must have arrived after the 1860 census. In 1870 I found them listed. In the transcribed version I used there is a note at the beginning of Allen Township which read "1st seven families at end of Wabash". Your FORTs were among those 1st seven families listed for Allen Twp so I am not sure what that really meant except that the person who entered the names on the census form may have started at the end of Wabash but was recording Allen Twp??? This is what the transcribed 1870 census showed: FORT, Stephen 62 m NJ Elenor 54 f NJ Winfield 18 m OH Johile 15 m OH (obviously hard to read <grin>) George 13 m OH Daniel 10 m OH Yeah! Your Daniel was a younger brother of Winfield!!!! 1851-1898 Darke Co. Marriages (page 93 of transcribed version published by the Darke Co. Genealogical Society in 1985): Daniel Y Fort to Mollie Viets 4 Dec 1880 by C W Wheeler, JP G W Fort to Lydia A Stewart 15 Dec 1881 by Robert Ross, MG J D Fort to Roseann Culbertson 24 Dec 1876 by A G Clark, JP W S Fort to Lydia P Clark 11 Feb 1875 by S J Houston, JP A G Clark was Abner G Clark who was Lydia P CLark's father. That's basically the family. Now from the 1880 census we get an even better picture of "J D". Karen already sent you some of this.... 1880 Census (places: 1st is where person was born; 2nd is where person's father was born; 3rd was where perwson's mother was born) Allen Township: FORT, Stephen 72 m NJ Eng NJ Eleanor 63 f NJ NJ NJ George W 23 m NJ NJ NJ Daniel 21 m NJ NJ NJ [several houses away] FORT, Joseph 25 m OH NJ NJ laborer [living with family of Michael Pifer age 38] Brown Township: FORT, Rosean 20 f OH PA PA [living with father Sam Culbertson age 53] Wabash Township FORT, Daniel 21 m OH OH OH laborer (obviously counted twice; where he was working, they didn't know where his parents were from <grin>) FORT, Winfield 27 m OH NJ NJ Lydia 26 f Ia OH OH (this is wrong; her mother was actually born in Indiana) Bertha L 4 f OH OH Ia At 4/14/03 07:19 AM -0400, you wrote: >Thanks for these inscriptions Wally --- >On these inscriptions --- then would Willis D be the son of Winfield and >Lydia? The JD and RA has thrown me for a loop..but >Stephen and Eleanor were my gg grandparents. > >June >kerryoh@sssnet.com > >from Boyd Cemetery, Darke Co., Ohio > FORT, Anna Mary dau of J D & R A d 8-21-1879 age 2y 3d > Willis D son of W S & L P d 5-17-1879 age 2y 2m 2d > Stephen L d 11-16-1886 age 78y 10m 5d > Eleanor d 3-5-1893 age 76y 6m 19d ================= wally@calweb.com