Dear Yvonna: My Ragans come from Person Co., NC, too, and they are almost impossible to sort out because of all the marriages between cousins! (Note well: spelling is completely irrelevant with the NC crew.) I found a George Ragan (22 yrs) in the 1900 census, Durham, Durham Co., NC. He was living with a 24 year old Thomas Ragan, 14 yr old Dora (wife of Thomas), a 20 yr old Robert. George & Robert were described as boarders. Perhaps they were all 3 brothers, or at least Robert & George were brothers, maybe Thomas was a cousin. In the 1880 Person Co., NC, census, a James Reagan and his wife, Evaline, were living with their children, Jesse (13), James (11), George (9), and Robert (6). There was a marriage of a James L. Ragan & Evaline Gravet in Person Co., 10 Mar 1863. Is it possible that this is the J.L. Ragan you are looking for? (I wouldn't worry too much about the discrepancy in ages. Census records are notoriously inaccurate in that regard.) In the 1870 Person Co., NC census, James Ragan, Evaline, Jesse T. (4) and James L. (1) (obviously Jr!) were enumerated. I wonder if the Thomas Ragan above was Jesse T. in 1870? The 1900 record was very difficult to read and Thomas could have not known exactly how old he was OR been trying to appear younger since his wife was only 14! I am glad to have had this research come up. In 1880, James & Evaline were living next door to one of my ancestors and it looks, circumstantially, that this James and Charles Ragan might have been related (ages are close and proximity of households). I did not have parents for Charles in my database nor this James L. at all. There were 4 men about the same age in the 1860 census, all named James Ragan and all living in Person Co. ARGH! (It does look like at least one of them was enumerated twice). A new trail to track! (PS, Mangum is in Durham Co. I found Cora there with her family in the 1900 census). Best wishes, Anne Burton Washburn Burton & allied families http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=annebw At 01:08 AM 9/15/2007, you wrote: >I need help with my Ragan ancestry. My great-grandfather was George >Ragan from Orange, Durham or Person county NC. He married a Cora >Evans from Mangum, Orange County NC sometime after 1900. Cora Evans >was the daughter of Smith Evans. George and Cora were to parents of >my grandmother. Both Cora and George died when my grandmother was >three or four years old and she went to live with the Evans >family. My grandmother never really knew anything about her father >George except that he had been kicked by a horse and killed. I can >remember there being some other Ragans that were some how related to >my gandmother but I do not know how they were related. My mother's >memory is not very good any more so she is no help. The best I can >come up with is that these other Ragans were either George's >brothers or cousins. The wife of one of the other Ragans was Dora >and I think her husband's name was Jessie. I found a relative from >the Evans family that said she had a copy of the > marriage record that stated that George was born in 1875 and that > his father was J L Ragan. Please check your data to see if you can > trace my George Ragan and tell me who his family was. > >Yvonna Mills