Rick, Sorry, I haven't anything on your McCurdy line, but I'll check with my friend. If she has, she can contact you, if that is okay. I do have some obituaries. I noticed the name is spelled Macurdy, McCurdy, and McKirdy. A sixteen inch long article from an 1893 issue of the Butler Citizen is titled A Tale of Woe. Since it is lengthy, I'll give you the gist of it. In 1864 John Byers returned home to Clearfield Co., Pa. after serving 3 years in the Union Army. e married a pretty school teacher of the area in 1865. Her name was Sarah E. Sutchell. When Sarah's father died, she inherited a little farm in East Mahoning Tp., Indiana Co., Pa. She and John removed with their young children to the farm. while John was out in the fields, Sarah began the wash. She sat a pail of boiling water by the wash, propped the youngest baby with rugs on the floor, to aid it in sitting, but it crawled out, overturned the bucket, and died a very short time later in the day from the scalding burns. Two years later, another child aged three, fell into an open grate, catching its clothes on fire and causing death. In time their children numbered seven. The morose father blamed the wife for the deaths and began to assault her. In time, the eldest child, a boy aged 16, began to defend his mother. One day when it happened again, the father threatened the son, and the 16 year old picked up the gun and shot his father. The boy was tried in the Indiana courts in 1886. He was acquitted, but life was unhappy so he moved to Colorado. The mother died, age 47, in February 1893, convulsing terribly. The symptoms of a neighbor described hydrophobia. After the mother's funeral, the next oldest boy, Perry, went to look after the horses, was kicked by a colt and was expected to die from the injuries. At the same time Mabel, 12, the eldest daughter had a fatal illness. [at the date of the writing of the newspaper 3-3-1893]. The last sentence in the article notes that Petro is living and Mabel is recovering. Well, so much for the Byers. You didn't give a time frame, but you might want to check the censuses. That is a nice offer to do lookups in Erie or Crawford Co., Pa. Thank you. Happy researching. Glee