I have written before of my ggg grandmother Zipporah Peters of Anderson County, TN. I have some progress to report on determining her ancestry, although it is circumstantial evidence rather than proof at this point. The first two Peters into what is now Anderson County, TN were Tobias Peters, Sr. and Henry Peters, Sr. The following 1850 Anderson County census entries suggest that Zipporah was a granddaughter of Henry Peters Sr., with her father being either Henry Peters Jr. or Thomas Peters. HN 144 PETERS Henry 55 m wagon maker $250 TN Jane 50 f TN Francis 19 m farmer TN Mandy Ann 17 f TN Arthur 16 m farmer TN Susan 12 f TN (This is Henry Peters, Jr. and Jane England. Either Henry's age or his birthplace is off a bit. The family moved from VA to TN in 1797. If Henry Jr. was born in 1795 as suggested by this census entry, he would have been born in VA. The 1860 census entry suggests that Henry Jr. was born in 1801, which is more like it.) HN 148 PETERS Henry 81 farmer PA Milly 55 VA Katherine 49 TN (This is Henry Peters, Sr. and two of his daughters who never married. His wife, Mary Wiatt, died before 1830. The birth places for the daughters are credible. Milly was born about 1795 in Virginia. The family moved to Tennessee in 1797. Katherine was born about 1801 in Tennessee.) HN 149 CROSS Alfred 38 $100 TN Zipporah 38 TN Sarah E. 9 TN Mary J. 7 TN Anna J. 6 TN Huldah A. 4 TN William A. 1 TN not named 1/12 TN not named 1/12 TN (This is Zipporah Peters and her husband Alfred Carter Cross. They were married 2 May 1840 in Anderson County. Huldah A. age 4 is my gg grandmother Hulda Asberine Cross who married John H. Peters. This accounts for two of the three Peters lines I have in Anderson County. I haven't yet figured out if Hulda Cross and John Peters were related -– probably they were cousins or something because they both have Peters grandparents -– but that isn't the point of this message anyway.) HN 150 PETERS Thomas 60 farmer VA Sarah 60 VA Susan E. 22 TN (This is Thomas Peters and Sarah B.(Jenny) England. Thomas was the son of Henry Peters, Sr.) It appears likely to me that Zipporah in HN 149 was living between her grandfather Henry Sr. in HN 148 and her father Thomas in HN 150. But you can't rule out the possibility that her father was Henry Jr. in HN 144 or that her father was somebody else entirely. I have recently found three GEDCOM's on ancestry.com which show the father of Zipporah Peters to be Thomas Peters. All three appear to have been posted by the same researcher using slightly different E-mail addresses. I wrote to all three addresses to ask what documentation there was that Thomas was Zipporah's father. All three messages bounced, so the researcher must not be using any of those three addresses at the present time. But it is still suggestive that somebody else came to the conclusion that Thomas was Zipporah's father. Finally, there is Zipporah Peters' mother. Zipporah is not a very common name, and it seems likely that she was named for somebody in the family. Thomas Peters' wife Sarah B. (Jenny) England was the daughter of John England and Vesta Zipporah Choate/Choats. It therefore seems likely that Zipporah Peters was the daughter of Jenny England and that Zipporah was named for her maternal grandmother Vesta Zipporah Choate/Choats. Vesta Zipporah Choate/Choats had a daughter named Vesta Zipporah England. Vesta Zipporah England married John Wasson and had a daughter named Vesta Zipporah Wasson. So Vesta Zipporah Choate/Choats had one granddaughter named after her for sure; why not another one? Indeed, I would suspect that Zipporah Peters was named Vesta Zipporah Peters, although I have found no record of her having Vesta as a first name. There seems to have been a strong propensity in the family to go by middle names. Vesta Zipporah Choate/Choats herself witnessed a deed in 1818, and signed her name Zipporah England rather than Vesta England or Vesta Zipporah England. Vesta Zipporah England and Vesta Zipporah Wasson kept both the "Vesta" and the "Zipporah". So it seems likely that Zipporah Peters did the same thing, was named Vesta Zipporah Peters, and was known as Zipporah. But there is unlikely ever to be a way to prove it. If anybody has any data to support or to refute the theory that Zipporah Peters was the daughter of Thomas Peters and the granddaughter of Henry Peters, Sr., I would live to hear from you. Thanks in advance, Jerry Bryan ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com