Debbie, you rascal, you see what happens when we get off list.....we inevitably deny ourselves the advantage of having multiple folks working on a question and instead only have one person working on the question. Go....and let's both sin no more, plueese.<g> Barb ET AL here's the thread: I had reversed a couple of dates on her people in that Screven County Cemeteries document and Debbie had asked if I was just "testing" her. I said no 'mam, I just mixed 'em up and it's now corrected. She then asked about some resources for getting to North Newinton Baptist Church where William E. Poythress and wife Martha are buried. I gave her phone # etc. Then she commented to the effect that it sure did look sensible to her to at least ask about linking this William E. to the William (18 yrs. old) who was oldest "child" living with Hester Poythress in the 1850 census. That jolted me because I had just never studied it hard enough and the more I looked the better "it" looked. I then said >Fret no more about this lady.  I must have a ton of paper on her which you >have motivated me to sit down and put into a sensible form.  Give me a few >days would you?    And if you are descended from her you are also descended >from her husband Meredith Poythress, Sr. which is where I'm guessing you >got the Poythress name if that is your line. I then said Oh, I'm sure we are related and I but I only THINK I know how.  I speculate that John White Poythress, second son of Meredith Poythress, Sr. and Hester Wilder Mock led his whole bunch down to the Southern half of Screven.  Only a guess but I can account for him down there and I can't account for anybody else down there prior to him getting there.  A slender reed to be leaning on but a reed never-the-less.   Then: Subj: Hester Date: 9/7/01 To: <A HREF="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</A> Debbie.......Hot Ziggedy!  Now I see where you are going and it never occurred to me.  I guess I wasn't paying attention.  Sorry. If you are right Deb, and I think you are but it's just now dawning on me, you are putting together highly likely linkage for Bud Poythress, yourself, Christine Poythress, and even that crowd of South Carolinians of Bud's friend Doris Poythress and the Evans' Screven connection is confirmed once again but that one was never  much in doubt anyway. You are placing William Poythress as the son of Hester Poythress in the 1850 Screven census at age 18 to be the same William E. Poythress m. (7 Dec 1857) Martha J.  ______ .  We have a complete CSA service and pension record on William E. and subsequent widow Martha that is helpful in this. We don't exactly have a picture of William E. and Martha and Hester (in beige, mother of the groom) all standing at the N. Newington Baptist Church altar but we have just about everything else.  I have only one tiny troubling fact which is that William E. is shown in one place (undocumented) as "b. VA."  However, he is ALSO documented showing "b. S.C." (census) and "b. Ga." (pension application).  I think S. C. may likely be correct but that one doesn't much matter so let's proceed admitting the small worry of the "VA" matter. A point is that by the time William E. Poythress is doing any "testifying" on his own behalf he gives 3 different birth dates (all within 1 to 2 years of the 1850 census- derived ages which would have been fine even if he wasn't 75 years old when he was testifying. But who was keeping score in those days anyway?).  I think it is significant that he never varies from the birth "date" of July 11 in any of half dozen records and that is the date on his grave in N. Newington Baptist Church where he is buried with wife Martha J. As for pensions, remember, CSA pensions were STATE pensions.  Even if William E. was born in S. C. (which he could easily have been) or even VA, he is likely "motivated" to "claim" born "Ga." for a "Ga." pension although technically it wouldn't have denied him pension eligibilty since he served in a Georgia unit. With a lack of substantiated records, states were taking a critical view as the claims mounted. In a couple of other places (on the applications) the answers to the birthplace question for William E. are (slyly?) left blank on the pension papers. I'm a bit shaky here but I believe one of the several children of William E. and Martha J. Poythress was J. Warren Poythress m. Louisianna Hortense Lucas on 11 Jan 1892 (Lucas b. 27 Apr 1870, d. 19 Sep 1969).  We have a J. Warren Poythress working at S. Guckenheimer and Sons as a "clk." at 202 State St. in Savannah in 1891.  That might ring a bell for Christine Poythress in Nashville. So, if all of these people on the listserver (and maybe others) are descended from Hester Poythress they are also descended from husband Meredith Poythress and Thomas Poythress of Brunswick/Dinwiddie Counties, Virginia. Hester has been worrisome to us all along, the principle questions being: 1) was "Hester" one lady or two as appear in the records, census and otherwise? 2) if she is one in the same lady, did she marry second Meredith Poythress, Sr. or    Meredith Poythress, Jr.?  This is an issue Bud and I have tussled with from time    to time.  It's not a matter of huge importance but it does put Hester's    descendants in one generation or the other which I suppose is only a matter of    plugging the right name(s) into one's chart. 3. If Hester is one lady, then who were William and the other minor children in the       Screven1850 Census with Hester as head of household ?  William (18) b. at    Hester's age 37 (?) is a possible as a son but Mary A. (14), Lucy M. (9) and Jane    (5) would seem to be getting out there a ways. I'll be working on a time line for the "one or two" Hesters which seems the best way to get a bead on her/them.  If she is indeed one lady, she lead a hugely complicated life and a personal time line would seem to get at it best. For the process, any contributions appreciated. Maynard Now.....up to speed.....maybe I'm making to much of this. What do the two Williams have in common: same name, same birth date (roughly), same descendency from Hester and Meredith, and both have SC "connections". I guess that's a start. We've started with a lot less. For working on a time line for Hester I'll take all the help I can get but it might be better to just wait and critique my time line since I believe I have accumulated just about everything about Hester that went on by way of conversations on the list server over the past few years. Sorry to have left you all out of the loop on this one. Maynard