This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: SMITH Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/DAC.2ACI/528.1.1 Message Board Post: Yes, I finally had run across that census record myself... Apparently the census taker didn't want to write to much because he seemed to prefer initials over full names. I eventually found that Martha Susan SMITH's parents were Jeptha Lewis SMITH and Martha Louella WATSON. Martha WATSON's parents were Dempsey WATSON and Mary DAVIS(?). I am still searching for more information on Jeptha. His widow filed for a confederate pension which was denied because she didn't know what company and regiment her husband fought for. She thought he was a member of the cavalry in Walker's division and Sibley's brigade. Family history says that just prior to his regiment's release in October of 1864, Jeptha had become very ill. He was told to set out himself towards home and to go as far as he could in his condition and that the other company members would be along in a few days. He travelled on to a settlement where a farmer took him in for the night but Jeptha passed away and the far! mer buried him there. The farmer placed several of Jeptha's items on the gate - his hat, saddle, and so forth. When the company came by, they recognized the belongings and found out about Jeptha's dying from the farmer. I know it's going to be a chore trying to track a family name like Smith, but I figure that by the time I take all the J and JL Smiths in Texas regiments and compare that to companies mustered near Rusk County in 1861 and companies that were members of the aforementioned division and brigade, I might have a fairly short list of candidates for Jeptha. Then its a matter of checking those service records and trying to find some indication that I have found the right person. (I know, for Confederate records, its a shot in the dark!) Anyway, it will require a trip to DC because I sure am not paying for guesses at service records...