This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: waroper Surnames: Roper Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.roper/1872.1.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Frank: Thanks for running this down! Hopefully, with some better imaging we can identify this Samuel ROPER's Census record. The dearth of Samuel ROPERs in the early 1800s and the exact correspondence as to place would seem to support a very strong inference that the Samuel ROPER you identified in the 1850 Mortality Schedule is the SAME Samuel ROPER shown in the 1840 Census and the deceased husband of Jane ROPER. I had made the weak inference that Samuel ROPER had died earlier based upon the absence of younger children from the household. But one or more of the younger children might also very well have been stricken with cholera, which was epidemic in those years, especially along the rivers that tended to communicate the disease into the interior of the country after arrival of new infections from Europe. * Curiously, I found a Census record for a James ROPER (b 1836 - IL) residing in Williamson, Illinois in the 1880 Census that shows this James ROPER's parents to have been each born in Illinois. This may reflect that this isn't Samuel ROPER's son, that the Census record as to the birthplace of the parents is simply wrong, OR that there was another Samuel ROPER in Pope County. See: "United States Census, 1880," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MXK1-5CR : accessed 23 Mar 2014), James Roper, Northern, Williamson, Illinois, United States; citing sheet 388B, NARA microfilm publication T9. * * * On balance, I have MORE confidence in the more contemporaneous Mortality Schedule and am inclined to believe that the English birthplace given in that record ought to be treated as determinative. * * * Note my separate post showing that this Samuel ROPER may have been an adherent of Alexander CAMPBELL's Christian Church movement. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board. <br>