This note is for all you fans/descendants of John R. Smothers who married Catherine Sherwood and 'Mima Ridley. John R. Smothers is easy to locate with certainty in the 1820 census because he had a rather unusual distribution of children at that time. From surving 1865 & 1877 Franklin Co., IL, estate partition records records, which name all of John R. Smothers children, his Smothers family is the most documented ("proven") one I know of from the early 1800's. In 1820, John R. Smothers and wife Catherine Sherwood would have had the following children living with them (or with a relative): Elizabeth b 1803 Margaret b 1803-06 Rebecca b 1808 Elender b 1811 Catherine Milky b 1812 Mary "Polly" b 1817-22 John Hiram Casey b 1819-20 Note the count is seven daughters and one son. Only one John Smothers in the 1820 TN census fits this family profile: 1820 Census, Sumner Co, TN John Smothers 1000001-33110 Numbers correspond to: 1 m U-10; 1 male 45-up; 3 female U10; 3 f 10-16; 1 f 16-26; 1 f 26-45 ============================================== Bill Smothers Delaware