For Sharon and Margaret: The Williamson Co TX delayed birth certificates for Edith Christine Cook b 22 Oct 1904 and Rufus Selman Cook b 20 Jan 1903 are for two of the children of Rutha Elizabeth Pate and Middlebrook Selman Cook. Rutha (Rufie) Elizabeth Pate was b 21 Sep 1878 in Yalobusha Co MS. Her father was Rufus Pate and her mother was Victoria Elizabeth Boyle. Rufie Pate Cook was enumerated in the 1910 census of Bell Co TX. See Enum Dist 5, sheet 14, Precinct 2, site 191/193. Her maiden aunt, Mary Pate age 72, also was enumerated in the household. Rufie Pate, an unmarried female, was enumerated in the 1900 census of Bell Co TX with her step father, William Powell Hancock, and with her mother, Victoria Elizabeth Boyle Pate Hancock. See Enum Dist 18, sheet 6, Precinct 2, site 103/102. Rufie (Rutha) Pate was enumerated with her widowed mother in the 1880 census of Yalobusha Co MS. See household of V E Pate, page 267, Enum Dist 210, sheet 27, Beat 5, site 237. Rufus Pate, the father of Rutha (Rufie)! Pate was b about 1845 in Yalobusha Co MS and died about 1878 also in Yalobusha Co. Rufus Pate 1845-1878 was the son of James Pate and Margaret Harriet Railey. There were two Pate lines that moved into Yalobusha Co MS prior to 1850. One line was out of Warren Co GA and Sussex-Southampton Co VA This line descended from Harbert Pate and Charlotte Adams and had intermarried with a Broom(e) family in Warren Co. GA. The other line was from Kershaw Co SC and descended from the Levi Pate family in SC. James Pate, son of Levi Pate of SC, married Margaret Harriet Railey in SC. They married prior to 1838, lived briefly in AL and settled in Yalobusha Co prior to 1840. They were enumerated in the 1850 census of Yalobusha Co MS. James Pate died prior to 1860 and his widow returned to her family in Kershaw Co SC. Two or more of the older children of James Pate and Margaret Harriet Railey remained in MS, specifically Rufus Pate b ca 1844 and Mary Pate b ca 1840. Mary Pate b ca 1840 was the maiden aunt of Rutha (Rufie) Pate Cook enumerated in the 1910 census of Bell Co TX. Rufus Pate and his sister Mary Pate, the father and aunt of Rutha Pate Cook, were enumerated in the 1850 census of Yalobusha Co MS. See Page 378, site 7/7. Margaret Harriet Railey Pate was enumerated, with some of her children, in the 1860 and 1870 censuses of Kershaw Co SC. She was living with her parents, William and Morning Railey. I would "guess" that the Pate line was in Bell Co TX and that the Cook line was in the adjoining county to the south, which is Williamson. I would also "guess" that the marriage of Rutha Pate and Middlebrook Selman Cook was licensed out of Bell Co 1900-1902 and probably occurred in Bell Co. TX. The couple apparently established their initial home in Williamson Co. Jinks may have a differing view on the "other" Pate line in Yalobusha Co MS. Joel