Meredith: You may find some of your answers at the Madison County Records Center http://www.co.madison.al.us/mcrc/ I seem to recall reading that the marriage of Zachariah Rucker was recorded as Burke A compiler named Dorothy Scott Johnson did a two-volume cemetery survey for about half the county. The Library of Congress profile -- LCCN 78-111526 Cemeteries of Madison County, Alabama : a record of the tombstone inscriptions in all known white cemeteries in the west half of Madison County, Alabama, except Memory Garden / by Dorothy Scott Johnson. Huntsville, AL There may be other, more recent and more inclusive, studies, but I've not run across them. The Huntsville-Madison County Library in Huntsville, which you can not do justice to in two hours, has a very large genealogical section. http://www.hpl.lib.al.us/ Check out their "Heritage Room". If you are looking for Pate families in this area, do not skip Giles Co TN, which adjoins Madison Co AL. Look especially close at an area in Giles Co TN known as Cold Water Creek. Some of the Pate families in Giles Co TN MAY have ties back to VA and down to Monroe Co MS and back to Tuscaloosa and Pickens Co AL. Note the MAY have. Joel ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Sheridan" <dsheridan1@ec.rr.com> To: <PATE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 9:05 AM Subject: [PATE GENEALOGY] Rucker/Pate/Thurman marriages > Deborah has sent me a Thurman Rucker marriage in Madison Co Al. John Thurman md Nancy Rucker on Sept 9, 1819. This John Thurman was supposedly the son of Jesse and Mary Montgomery Thurman. Susan Pate (bn 1805 and considered the sister of my Eliz Ann Pate bn 1800(( married 1819 Madison Co AL to Henderson Clarke bn1797 KY))- both girls bn TN)is married Madison Co to Zach Rucker. Andrew Jackson Pate bn Madison Co, Al to Stephen Pate and Jane Milliken, marries Martha Susan Thurman (first husband Bell)in Dyer Co Tn. Eliz Ann Pate Clark's grandson (I think it was Ferinand F. S. Dawson-son of Col William Dawson )marries a Thurman girl after the civil war. At this point all are Cumberland Presbyterian. Can anyone tell me where in Madison Co the Thurmans, Ruckers, Dawsons (in the 1840s Col Billy took his young fiance off to Madison Co to marry-ran off they said), Clarkes, and Pates may have married?? Church, ministers book or is there a cemetery to the north of Huntsville wher! > e these families are intermingled??? Thanks Meredith > >