As a new subscriber, I wonder if this is a list looking at my interest area. Orphaned at an early age, raised by old maid aunts til he was apprenticed to a stone mason in Pittsburg, the first reliable evidence I have of him is his donation land claim filed at Jacksonville Oregon, in 1856 in which he claims to have been born in the US in 1822 and to have entered Oregon Territory on December 1, 1851 and settled on his claim on January 2, 1852. The Southern Oregon Pioneer Association published a resolution on the Death of James H Russell which is reported to have occured on October 1st, 1895. The resolution is published on the web at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hill2oregon/JamHRuss.htm and states that he was born near Natelus, Tennessee April 5th 1923, while the family bible states near Natchez Tenn. Any cousins out there? William P. Russell P.O. Box 2029 Bandon, OR 97411 Bill-R@SEA-edu.org