I don't know about your family, but I, too, have found the Indiana County clerks helpful. If a mother wanted child support, she had to file the fortification and bastardy notice. Most cases then were filed by the person involved, not the State as now. The clerks suggested looking up the court case for me and found my ancestor--needed for Social Security application. Generally a case was settled with a lump sum, but sometimes the Judge ordered support payments. Also, the Indiana Rootsweb site has indexed newspapers, and often all the upcoming court cases would be listed in the newspaper, which would be easier to find. Usually it is something like this: George Smith, fortification and bastardy, filed by Mary Jones. Marilyn Kline Washington -----Original Message----- From: Ellen <[email protected]> To: Jill Horner <[email protected]> Cc: PACAMBRI <[email protected]>; lucycronin <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, Oct 20, 2011 9:10 pm Subject: Re: [PACAMBRI] [PABEDFOR] George Bowers and Malissa Ressler orIrving Hi Jill, Thank you for sharing this informatio n! It has been awhile since I made my initial posting regarding Melissa's arentage, and I don't recall the exact details of my post. he had 2 children: harlotte "Lottie" Bowers in 1874 who married Howard "Howd" Gates -- no children William A. Bowers in 1876 who married Stella Fluke. They had 2 children. I was n contact with their daughter, who has since died. y great grandfather, George Long Bowers married Malissa on 5 Mar 1874 in iddlesburg, PA. She died about 1878 in Gallitzen, PA. George married second to llen Bowers. George and Ellen had one child, my grandfather. Let me know what you might be interested in learning about Malissa. Ellen Copper ----- Original Message ----- rom: "Jill Horner" <[email protected]> o: [email protected] c: [email protected], [email protected] ent: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 6:58:17 PM ubject: [PACAMBRI] [PABEDFOR] George Bowers and Malissa Ressler orIrving think I can help with your questions regarding Malica/Malissa rvin/Irving/Ervin/Ressler. I am a descendant of Daniel Ressler and Charlotte kiles, and in my research I came across a posting at the Indiana County PA ailing list that would seem to solve the problem. It references the following ourt case: Indiana County PA Court Case. June Quarter Session, 1857. Commonwealth vs Edward Erwin. Seduction/Fornication and bastardy. Charlotte Skiles, Prosecutrix. Settled out of court, on payment of costs. The researcher, Sonya Barclay, notes that the above is all the information that as available. Based on this and Malica/Malissa’s age at the time of the 1870 ensus from BroadTop Twp, Bedford Co, PA which includes her in the Daniel & harlotte Ressler family, it sounds like she’s Edward Erwin’s biological aughter, raised and/or adopted by Daniel Ressler (my great-great grandfather). ere’s the link to the discussion from 11/00: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/PAINDIAN/2000-11/0973635748 Hope this helps solve a mystery. I’m on the hunt for Daniel Ressler’s deeper ancestry. All I know is that his ather was Jacob Ressler, born 1817 in VA (though a later census record state A), and who married Sarah Helsel, They were living in Jackson Twp, Cambria Co, A in 1850, but all subsequent censuses show them in East Wheatfield Twp, ndiana Co, PA, til Jacob’s death there on 1/21/1890. If anyone has any nformation on them, I’d be thrilled! Thanks --Jill Horner - - - - - - - - - - Search for more Cambria County information on our webpage: ttp://www.camgenpa.com/ ------------------------------ o unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] ith the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of he message