Debby Malecki asked ... Do you have any censuses ? What was his wife's name and additional info also children names and info? ANSWERS ======= I have found many Fred Shearers and Scherers in the 1900 and 1910 censuses, but it's not until the 1920 census (in Hutchinson, KS) when I have an entry I can definitively say is him. I've gone as far as to construct a listing of every Fred Shearer/Scherer in the 1900, 1910, and 1920 census, and try to line them up, and see what's left over, but there are just too many of them that don't match to make it work. For example, there is an interesting one in the 1900 census (sent to me in response to this posting) with a Fred Scherer born Sep. 1882 in PA. Is this him? Hard to say. I'll follow up though, see if I can learn more about this family, maybe there will be some clues to help determine which Fred Shearer is being shown. There's also an intriguing entry in the 1910 census showing a Fred Shearer married, but once again I've tried to learn more about the family shown in the census without success. The marriage we know about happens in 1915 in Hutchinson, KS, and the children are born in either KS or CO. The solid information we have on Fred all starts after his arrival in Hutchinson, sometime shortly before 1915, and after that point he never returns to PA or IL. If it's helpful, my data is posted at http://www.gencircles.com/users/cscooper/1/data/194 ORIGINAL POST ============= I'm trying to help my wife learn more about her grandfather, Fred Shearer, a mysterious man for whom we have little solid birth information, and who disappeared in the 30's so we know nothing about his death. For his birth, we have his date of birth (Sept. 26 1884) from his WW1 draft registration, but for his place of birth on various other documents he usually gave either IL or PA. However, on the birth certificate for one of his daughters, he listed "Pitsen, PA" as his birthplace, so I've been focusing on Pittston, figuring that's what was meant (anyone know of a town named Pitsen in PA?) Her grandfather spelled his last name Shearer in later life, but in earlier documents it's spelled Scherer, and there was a Scherer family in Pitsten in the late 1800s/early 1900s, so that seems plausible. However, it seems most of the records have been destroyed, and I haven't had any success in reaching any of the Scherers I see that live in the Pittston area today. Research I've done (or had done) ... * Newspapers. The researcher I hired said "there is a large gap in the surviving issues of the Pittston Gazette from 1874 to 1889", and the "Wilkes-Barre papers probably would be of no help either because they contained very few birth notices at the time except for a few more prominent families in the city itself." * Had the Wyoming Historical & Geological Society do a search (though on Shearer, not Scherer, I'll contact them again) * Contacted the state for birth records (they didn't start state birth records until 1906) * Contacted the county for birth records (courthouse burned down during the flood of 1893) * Contacted the local Catholic diocese (we believe he was Catholic), no success. * The researcher explored other avenues without success. Any suggestions on how I can learn more about Fred and his possible Pittston roots? Thanks! Chris