In a message dated 1/25/2005 7:50:18 PM Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: Roper, William (born in Pickens Co, S.C.) age 87 years [no birth date] 7 Feb 1892 Roper, Susan; Age 79 years [died] 7 Mar 1879 * * * * * Please note that William ROPER's given age of 87 implies a year of birth of about 1805 rather than the implicit year of 1808 taken from the age given in the 1850 Census. Susan Masters ROPER would seem to have been born about 1800 if the information on the burial marker is trustworthy, making her again somewhat older than is shown in the 1850 Census enumeration. Of course, this PRESUMES that the ages given on the cemetery burial markers are reliable. * For comparison, William amd Susan ROPER are shown to both be age 41 in the 1850 Census [at 12 Aug 1850]; age 51 in the 1860 Census enumeration [at 2 Jun 1860]; aged 61 and 62, respectively, at the date of the 1870 Census [at 12 Aug 1870]; and William ROPER is age 72 in the 1880 Census enumeration [at 18 Jun 1880]. These are rather remarkably consistent Census records. The consistency is suggestive to me that the information given in the Census is more likely to be correct. In 1880, William ROPER is shown to have been born in Georgia to parents both born in Georgia. That year, he is residing with Larkin ROPER, age 30. By contrast, in each previous Census, both William and Susan Masters ROPER are shown to have been born in South Carolina. So in this final Census enumeration, William ROPER had aged an additional year and his birthplace was forgotten. Hi, William, thanks for posting this to the list. I've been to this cemetery but was looking only for the TALLANTs buried there. After we left, we were told the ROPERs were there, too. Could I ask you to please put Masters as ("possibly Masters"), rather than Susan Masters Roper. Elizabeth Roper was on the 1850 census with them and was old enough to have been Susan's mother, but it's just as possible (especially with my family) that a widowed aunt or a mother who had been married twice was living with them. So anytime I use William and Susan Roper, I use "William and Susan (poss. Masters) Roper. It's to show there is some doubt. Newcomers might not realize the maiden name has not been definitely established and there grows another error, perpetuated in cyberspace and in people's minds. I have a problem in another line. A newby cuzzie used the term "Doe" for an unknown maiden name...as in Jane Doe. I have told people over and over what he did (as he admitted to me), but the monster has grown 9 heards. Despite my best efforts, she will be known as A. L. Doe and only a few of us will know this was not her name. Thanks for your help. You are doing a great job with these Ropers and I was deligihted to get the dates for my gr.gr.grandparents. Shirley Maynard