Nelson, Thanks for the info you sent. If Jesse Klinger was the child of two young unwed parents I'm afraid we may never know more than we do now. I am enclosing FYI a few Klinger excerpts from a letter written in 1838 by William Osman, b. 1819, s/o Robert Osman, to his brother Moses. The letter describes the travels of William and another brother Joshua in and about Lykens Twp. in the fall of 1838. Maybe you will recognize some of these people. "...A little below that we saw the ground work of a saw mill which was about to be built by the tenant of the new house just noticed, which tenant's name was Kissinger, married to P. Klinger's daughter, and a son of old John Kissinger..." "...we went up along the creek to John Philip Klingers. There we found none at home but the old women and little 'uns were about to be at scrubbing. As no male is safe about the house while the women are scrubbing we made our stay short and mosied toward Philip Klingers..." "...About a half mile from Klingers on the Gratztown road we came to a new house about being erected by John Kissinger Sr., for his son Jonas where we found brother John [Osman] and his son Ben..." [This John Osman is my gg-grandfather. He and his son Ben were carpenters.] "...The next place we landed at was Philip Klingers. After a brief talk with the old lady, Philip and about two legions of young 'uns made their appearance, who were all rather surprised to see us. Philip was very sociable and commanded a dinner to be prepared. While this preparation was going on he conversed on a variety of subjects, such for instance as his bees, his new land, his colt, old sow, potato crop, etc., etc., which I would give you verbatim in this letter if I possibly could remember it. While we were in probably the most interesting part of the old gentleman's conversation a tremendous rush was made toward the table by the whole family, which I thought looked more like going to war than going to the table, and I whispering to Joshua asked what he thought this might mean. He answered that he conjectured it was a sign that dinner would soon be ready. And it happened that he was not mistaken, for in a few minutes Philip invited us to take dinner with himself. We a! ssented. ...After dinner the conversation turned upon religion of which Philip and wife profess and undoubtedly possess a good deal. About two o'clock we again went to see J. P. Klinger..." "...we jogged of to John Klingers. ...He has four children living and one dead, which is pretty good for about five years..." "...After a little Ann Klinger came in whom we were acquainted with and we shook her paw and entered into a very lively conversation, in which she among things informed us that she was married to Abraham Kissinger and lived well..." Note that William differentiates between John Philip Klinger, Philip Klinger and John Klinger. This entire letter as well as other letters written by William Osman from roughly 1836 to 1850, are on microfilm at the Gratz Historical Society. Thanks again, Jay Osman