This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/igB.2ACE/1938.1.2 Message Board Post: I am writing a book on the Pratt family and think I can answer your question. I also would like some help sorting out the children of Susan Wood Pratt Sumner. There are more than one George Pratts so please bear with me. Susan Wood was first married to Richard Pratt and they are in the 1860 Russell Co., VA census with a son John Pratt age 11/12ths. On 20 Dec. 1860, Susan Pratt gave birth to twin boys, George W. and James J. Pratt in Russell Co., VA. Richard Pratt then enlists in the Confederate Army and was killed, maybe at Petersburg, but that Richard may be a different man, a cousin back in Rockingham Co., NC. Then Susan marries Amos L. Sumner and has children. At least Judah Pratt, born in 1862, is another child by Richard. Anyway, that makes 4 children by Richard. Amos Sumner and Susan Pratt then have a daughter named Mary in 1867 but Amos already had a daughter named Mary. Why have two by the same name? How do we know William Sumner was not a Pratt? How do we know he was the son of Amanda Wilson? How do we know that Susan's maiden name was Wood? George Pratt (b. 1807) first married Sarah Vernon in Rockingham Co., NC in 1827. She may have died giving birth to Richard, as it seems he is the fourth child, born about 1835. George then marries Ruth Snell in 1838 in Henry Co., VA, has chidlren but then leaves for East TN in Oct. 1847 to find his brother and make plans to bring the family to TN. Instead, he abandons Ruth and family and marries for a third time in Wilkes Co., NC and moves to GA and then Indiana where he dies after 1870. George and Ruth had a son named George who was born in NC about 1844. In 1850 and 1860, Ruth is in Sullivan Co., TN with children from the first and second marriages, including her son George (b. 1844). So he is the uncle of your George William Pratt, son of Richard and Susan Wood Pratt. I would like help sorting out the children of Susan. Any help is appreciated. Where is Amos Sumner in 1850 and 1860? By the way, the John in her household in 1870 and 1880, I believe to be John Pratt, not John Sumner. How do we know he did in St. Louis in 1893?