This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Paul and Ellis Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/5BC.2ACE/1022.1.1.1.1.1 Message Board Post: Hi Donna, Well I couldn't do it without a lot of help. Susan hasn't answered back yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing what she has. Jayne McCarley doesn't show either Gabriel or Harriett on the wagon roster, but there are a lot of coincidences that keep leading me back to the Kennedy train. Harriett had a brother named James who left Mahaska in 1860 with Captain Kennedy and others. They came west to Walla Walla. Harriett's brother, James, was married to Margaret Winnett. Margaret's parents were Thomas and Ruth (Nixon) Winnett. James traveled with Margaret and her parents. Unknown the other names of the 1860 wagon roster. I do know that Thomas and Ruth's son, Clark, later married Harriett's sister in law, Effie Emeline Paul (sister of Gabriel Paul and daughter of George and Verlinda (Callaway) Paul. That was the second time over the trail for John Knox Kennedy. I thought perhaps he was leading his friends, family/ and or neighbors and perhaps scouting out a place to put down roots. This was about the time of the discovery of the gold fields too. A lot of men were coming west. A lot came from California and Oregon too. His son stayed at Walla Walla, so a return in 1862 made a lot of sense for Kennedy. So then we come to 1862....and the motivation for so many to leave their lives in Iowa behind. What was it? Gold? The Civil War? So many unanswered questions. What prompted Sarah Jane Farmer Ellis and all her children to leave Iowa and yet all of David's children by his first wife stayed behind? So I thought that perhaps Harriett and her new husband might have joined Harriett's grandmother's wagon train west in 1862. Sarah Jane Ellis was actually her step grandmother, but she was the only grandmother I think Harriett knew. Harriett's sister, Joanna Ellis Alderman, later died at Moscow, Idaho, so it may have been that she came west with them also. I'm not sure what connection Louisa Jane Paul Easter has to Harriett Ellis Paul, but I am looking forward to hearing from Susan. I will have to look back through Harriett's granddaughter's albums, but I think there was something in there about someone with that last name. Funny how these things all make sense after a while. My great grandmother's scrapbooks have tons of old articles with strange names that always prove to be clues. Thanks for your help and lets all stay in touch with each other. I plan to keep adding to the list whenever possible