I wanted to add one more piece of supporting evidence. In the transcription of Lee County Births (1853 - 1873), compiled by Mark Treadway, the following entry appears on page 137: Date of Birth: June 10, 1870; Name: Mary Burkhart; Birth Place: Lee Co; Father: Noble Burkhart; Mother: Lavina Burkhart; Person Giving Information: Jeremiah Burgan; Relationship of person giving information: Uncle. The Reverend Noble Covey Burkhart married Lavina Lorene Blankenship (daughter of Arthur M. Blankenship and Lavina Jane Burgin) on 12 April 1863 in Harlan County, Kentucky. Lavina Jane Burgin was the oldest child of James Burgin and Nancy Ledington; Jeremiah Burgan was their second child. Since Jeremiah Burgan gave his relationship to Lavina's child as "Uncle" (actually, grand-uncle), this pretty well establishes the relationship. Mark Mark Walton email: [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: Walton, Mark (MA) Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2005 11:42 AM To: '[email protected]' Subject: RE: [VALEE] Burgan Phil -- The information that I have is that Lavina Jane Burgin was the daughter of James Burgin and Nancy Ledington. This is not the result of original research on my part that proves it for a fact, but there is strong circumstantial evidence to support it. In the 1850 census for Lee County, the family of Arthur Blankenship and his wife Lavina are listed. In the same dwelling and next visit are enumerated the family of Chapman and Mary Roberts and their daughter Rebecca (Rebecca J. Roberts was my wife's second great grandmother -- she would become the first wife of James Knox Bays in 1867). Mary Roberts was the proven daughter of James Burgin and Nancy Ledington, and was a younger sister of Lavina Jane. Mary Burgin Roberts and her husband Chapman separated in the mid 1850s and formally divorced following the Civil War. I have personally researched Chapman Robert's Civil War extensive pension files (he served for the Union in the 173rd and 181st Regiments of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry), and the family dirty laundry is spelled out there in intimate detail, but that is, as the saying goes, another story. In the 1860 census, Mary was living with her parents, along with two of her 3 living children. A fourth child apparently died as an infant, but we have no other information on this child. Rebecca, her oldest living child, was living with Peter Washington Bays and his wife Rebecca Burgin Bays (another of Lavina's and Mary's sisters). In the 1870 census, Mary and Chapman's son Jeremiah Brownlow Roberts was still living with his grandparents. His sisters had married by then. I have not done a detailed analysis of where each of these families lived in relationship to each other during the 1850 - 1880 census enumerations, but I suspect it would reinforce their close family ties. I hope this helps. Mark Mark Walton email: [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of phil smith Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2005 9:35 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [VALEE] Burgan Can someone that is working on the Burgan line fill me in on the ancestrey (parents; grandparents; greatgrand parents etc.)of Lavina Jane Burgan b.1814 Lee Co. and was the third wife of Arthur M. Blankenship. I have been told conflecting info on her parentage......................thank you phil ==== VALEE Mailing List ==== Please avoid flaming (attacking) any single person or the group. This infraction will earn you immediate removal from the list. ============================== Jumpstart your genealogy with OneWorldTree. Search not only for ancestors, but entire generations. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13972/rd.ashx