This has been great! Alot of you have have volunteered valuable information. Even tho it was of a general information basis it has helped me atleast, in fitting together more realistic answers to some of my ancestry research. The one that stands out the most, is the possibility that I should consider looking up an ancestor either/or by his "guardian" or his given name and surname (that of his guardian) if records by his own (birth) surname seem to stop or disappear. I had also wondered why a son, who was a "minor" had petitioned the court for a guardian when his birth mother was still living at the time of his father's death. Also when his older step/half siblings were also still living, and living in the area. More of his situation makes more practical sense and I understand why that was. Now, something that is probably obvious, what were the usual terms in the early 1800s if a man(widowed) remarried a widowed/widdower (I get that terminolgy mixed up) ? I mean the legal aspect to that? Did legal matters of her estate have to be settled before she remarried? Did her betrothed "husband to be" become the one who handled her legal affairs from her previous marriage? This is probably again the obvious, but then again as we have seen, the times in the early 1800s were "slightly" different than then now. But some of these explanations can really open up "brick walls" and make it clearer which direction to go in our research. It has been a great help to me! I had narrowed my field of research with this one ancestor of mine and now have several other possibilities to turn to. Thank you everyone for your imput! Thyme

I agree with Thyme. It maybe has just helped me with a brick wall, although it's on a TX relative. My gr-grandmother's death cert listed her mother as Mary Wells, when in fact I've discovered it was Luiza Jane Hufferd. I knew that by the time my ggm was 10, she'd lost both parents, but couldn't figure how her daughter who gave the info on the death cert could have been so wrong on the name. Thanks for the clue. Kay in MT ----- Original Message ----- From: <Thyme1954@aol.com> To: <PALUZERN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, February 05, 2001 12:39 AM Subject: Re: [PALUZERN] Ward of the Orphans Court-early 1800 > This has been great! Alot