Posted on: Venango Co. Pa Query Forum Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Pa/Venango/2615 Surname: ------------------------- Finally got around to responding on this. As to your question: "help me understand why these children had Thomas McKee as guardian and not any of their Collingwood relatives? ", a quick review of the family shows three brothers that went to the war and did not come back to Venango Co. The rest were off homesteading in the mid-west. A simple analysis, but a good chance to be correct. Could you be so kind as to post, or send me, the names and whatever else of information those papers may contain about the children and the relationship of the guardian to the mother. (possibly a brother in law?)