It has been very difficult to try and figure out how to present the following. I am not certain that I have done the best job of it, but perhaps it will do for a beginning. I hope some of you will read this carefully and consider what I am trying to convey. I have worked on this for a very long time, and hope someone may have enough interest to help unravel it. I can accept being proven wrong if anyone has the proper documentation to prove for certain what became of MY JESSE G. TAYLOR. THIS MUCH I KNOW. My great-grandfather was JESSE GRANDVILLE TAYLOR born 1806 in OHIO . He settled on land in Crawford County, Arkansas July 28, 1869 per Homestead papers. His signature is on some of the documents including the final one on July 19, 1876. At this time he had built a dwelling, cribs, etc., had a wife and four children. His wife was ELIZABETH R. DOBBINS born in Ohio. Her parents were William and Catherine Dobbins. The children were the two aunts who raised my mother, FLORA E. TAYLOR born 1858 UNION CO , OHIO, and ELIZABETH CATHERINE TAYLOR born 1867 in Kansas. They had two brothers who died young, JOSEPHUS & JESSE, Jr. A brother that I grew up knowing well named ELISHA ANTHONY WAYNE TAYLOR, and my grandmother, MARY E. TAYLOR, who died following the birth of my Mother. I know that Jesse Grandville Taylor died on this Homestead, as the story of his death was often told by Elizabeth C. Taylor. Other things she said was that her father was a "VERY PRIVAT! E MAN". that he "WAS MARRIED BEFORE AND HAD ANOTHER FAMILY", that he was "VERY OLD" and that he was "BORN IN OHIO" but had "LIVED IN WISCONSIN. Various records such as death records of his children and census records confirm the stories we were told. WHAT I HAVE FOUND. I found FLORA E. TAYLOR, my great-aunt, in the 1860 census record of Belmont County, Ohio. She was two years old, living with her mother ELIZABETH TAYLOR in the household of an older JESSE TAYLOR & a JAMES TAYLOR. She had a baby brother named JOSEPHUS. The marriage record for an Elizabeth Dobbins and James Taylor with Frazier Taylor present is found in UNION COUNTY, OHIO. Aunt Flora was born in Union County, Ohio, but is found with her parents in Morgan County, Ohio in 1850. This is a neighboring county to BELMONT CO., OHIO. Jesse Taylor married Comfort Jarrett in BELMONT CO. OHIO in 1826. In 1850 they are living in UNION CO., Ohio. In 1860 THIS JESSE TAYLOR FAMILY is living in Bad Ax County, WISCONSIN. His name on the census is "JESSE G. TAYLOR". He is no longer living with his family in Wisconsin after this date, although his wife Comfort Taylor is found on the census in 1870 & 1880 in Vernon County, Forest, Wisconsin. ( Vernon county was for! merly Bad Ax County.) WHAT I HAVE CONCLUDED. Since I have not found another Jesse Taylor,( Jesse G. Taylor, Jesse Grandville Taylor) who fit my great-grandfathers birth year per census records, etc., and all the other criteria gathered from family and records such as death and census records, I conclude that this is my great-grandfather JESSE GRANDVILLE TAYLOR. With records putting him in the same area as my great-grandmother ELIZABETH R. DOBBINS such as Belmont, Morgan & Union Counties, Ohio, Crawford Co., Arkansas, and being the only Jesse Taylor I find in Wisconsin fitting his description, and the fact that he is no longer found in Wisconsin when I find him living with my great-grandmother in Arkansas 1869 - 1876, It seems obvious to me that this is quite probably my Jesse G. Taylor. I have seen him confused with his son Jesse E. Taylor (by marriage to Comfort Jarrett), and possibly confused with the Jesse Taylor born in 1790, but careful consideration of the records will show these are ! not the Jesse G. Taylor I am looking for. I believe he came back to Ohio from Wisconsin some time before 1867 and took Elizabeth R. Taylor and her two children with him to Arkansas (Aunt "Lizzie" being born in Kansas along the way.) I do not know if Flora and Josephus belonged to James Taylor or to Jesse G. Taylor, or what caused these peculiar circumstances. All of my family believed that Flora Taylor was Jesse G. Taylors child. I do not know if Jesse Taylor & Comfort Jarrett Taylor were divorced, or if he was indeed married to my great-grandmother at all. These are things I would very much like to learn. Elizabeth Bailey eebailey@pldi.net