Hi all, A lady with whom I've had the great pleasure of working during the past twelve years came to my office the other week with some exciting news. She had found an old church bulletin which indicated her great grandfather was born in Randolph County, NC in 1840 and had later founded a number of churches in our area. I promised to see what I could find in the census records. Thus far, I've found him listed twice (possibly 3 times) and have confirmed 12 of his 16 children. There's nothing particularly unusual about this except that....Belinda's great grandfather was a slave. His probable identity on the 1850 census is that of a 10 year old slave boy. As we dutifully record the number of slaves owned by our distant ancestors, incidents such as this makes me so grateful that my great grandfather was not listed on some census record alongside a loom or other piece of property. Have a nice Labor Day! Gene