Found some more of my g Aunt Kate Strong's notes. She says that James came to New York with a brother whose name she didn't know. They got separated in NY and James went on to West VA where he ran a pottery in or near Wheeling. He lived, however, just across the border into Ohio. Thelma found a marriage record for James STRONG and Prudence ELLIOT in Ohio just a few months before John was born so I think that John was probably born in the US. Aunt Kate states that she believes he was born in Ireland because he said he was Irish bred, spoke with an Irish accent, and could do a mean Irish Jig. I hardly think this is proof he was born in Ireland. As for the marriage of James and Pridence, they could have had a lay marriage in Ireland and a church marriage in the states (John could have been conceived in Ireland), or they may have not even known each other prior to coming to the states. People got pregnant out of wedlock then too. I just don't know which it is. The really frustrating thing is that Aunt Kate notes that Sherman STRONG of Missouri (son of Finley Ritchy STRONG, John's brother) had all of the documentation but she didn't copy it all down! Is anyone out there looking into the Finley Ritchy STRONG (b. 1825, m. Orleans WRIGHT) line? If so, you may have the info we need. That's all for now. Connie [email protected]