Carol: First it was not my intent to knock the skates out from under you. Your enthusiasm and diligence in searching for your roots is commendable. My effort was to help you avoid some pitfalls and traps that I and others have already fallen into and had to dig our way out of. Unfortunately there was a significant bit of inaccurate material published in the first 30 years of the last century. That sounds odd, but 1900 to 1930 was in the last century. The inaccurate material slowly spread until the advent of the computer and then the internet. I don't need to tell you how quickly you can spread information or misinformation these days. I am not familiar with the Fast-Crabbe correspondence of 1934-1966, but it does sound very much like the 1917 material published by John Ben Pate. You are wise to treat such material as searching guide. If you can not point to reliable sources and find sound, logical deductions or conclusions, you may wish to move with caution and to warn others of you doubts. Where do you go from here? By all means keep trying, digging, asking and sharing. Keep good notes on your documentation and sources. Look at material relating to allied families. You mentioned an Edwards line. Dig a bit in their turf. Who knows, you might run across an Edwards Bible with lots of Pate names in it. Use the census resources available. Cautiously use internet resources. Good (reliable) internet resources will cite page, chapter and book (sometimes even the library). Use World Connect. Carefully discern the best publications. The copy cats are often very obvious. Browse the PATE-L archives. There was a good exchange on William Riley Pate. The repetition of names across generations can be useful in proving lineage. The more unusual the name the better. A note of caution about names- they can jump across sibling lines. Rework some of your "known" facts. Take a "known" fact and prove it up for yourself. Look at migratory patterns. Look for place names in one area that were taken from other areas. Use other researchers' reports, but with caution. Above all keep digging and sharing. Joel