This posting is in response to the fascinating information found at Thornton GALE's website, http://www.thorntongale.org/Genealogy/J_J_Poill/J_J_Poill.htm. Anyone with an interest in the Georgia PILES Families, and in particular, Samuel PILES and Charity EASON and descendants should take a look. Thornton, I have come to believe that your Jonathan Jackson (I'll call him J.J.) POILL is the known son John PILES/PYLE born to Nicholas PYLE and Mary Ann WESTBROOK. My best guess had been that John was born c1836, after Everitt (born DEC 1832) and Nicholas, Junior (born c1834). This meshes reasonably well with the 1880 census information for J.J. (age 42, thus born c1838), before Jonathan's birth year began to creep backwards in time with later census. Also, J.J. reports that he was their third child, which fits our understanding for John. Finally, one report has J.J. born in Kemper Co MS, which is where the Nicholas PYLE Family was living in the late 1830s. The dark secret that your mother and aunt felt J.J. POILL might have held is probably the 1853-1854 Shelby Co AL assault case in which Nicholas, Junior and John were defendants. This episode presumably hurt the family, strained Nicholas Senior's finances to their limit, and undoubtedly contributed to the breakup of the marriage of Nicholas and Mary (which is another candidate for the dark secret). I can imagine that John lit out on his own as a young adult about this time, and in an effort to avoid the past, altered his name, his age, and his personal history. His brother Nicholas, the other defendant, seems to have done the same thing. He left the family before 1860, and reportedly claimed in the 1880 census that his father was born in Ireland and his mother in Holland (need to verify this report). If this theory regarding J.J. is true, then it doesn't leave much time for the fanciful history of 1) being taken by his uncle John (WESTBROOK?; didn't Nicholas Senior have something to say about this? And why weren't Everitt and Nicholas, Junior similarly rescued from an abusive step-mother?); 2) traveling to IL, LA, AR, TN, AL, AR again, and finally TX; 3) being "given" to a government agent, Captain SNODDY and then to a Cherokee Indian to be raised; 4) joining the TX Rangers in 1844; 5) escorting wagon trains to TX and CA (later 1840s); 6) quitting the TX Rangers (1852); and 7) going to Oregon Territory by 1856. It all seems a bit much. J.J. POILL mentions a Rome, Floyd Co GA connection for his father, Nicholas. This sounds right, but I think that happened in the late 1840s, when Nicholas appears in land and promissory-note records, not in the 1830s. Some of the supposed history from the 1924 interview with J.J. ought to be verifiable (or refutable). What was the event when the "stars fell", in 1833? Was that an unusual meteor shower, or a comet? Sounds like an event that could be found in astronomical history. Can the TX Ranger service be verified? Was there a Captain DOTY? Were the rangers fighting and killing Cherokee and Apache Indians in TX in the 1840s? What is the source of the information that J.J. arrived in OR by 1856? 1856 is about the time that the Shelby Co AL difficulties were coming to a head. John PYLE (born c1836) would have reached adulthood about then, and might have set out on his own. The court case was resolved in 1854. Nicholas PYLE's marriage seems to have broken up in the 1856-1858 time frame. Can you not find J.J. POILL/POILE/PYLE/etc in the 1860 and 1870 census for Oregon? What about Civil War service. I suppose if J.J. were a resident of Oregon at the time, he may not have been called upon to serve. Now the kicker in all of this is that, depending upon what you want to believe from the 1924 interview, Mary from the 1860 Shelby Co AL census may not have been Mary Ann WESTBROOK. J.J. says he was the third of four born to WESTBROOK, in which case the children born after about 1840 would have been children of Nicholas, but born to a different Mary. The marriage to the second Mary must have taken place in Kemper Co MS, where Nicholas lived in that era. I've never seen such a record, so I don't know what to believe here. Regardless, it sure feels to me like your J.J. POILL is the known son John of Nicholas PYLE, Senior. Comments appreciated. Jim Smee Pittsburgh PA