Dear Ken and WRG I spent Monday at Maine Archives in an attempt to locate John Whitney,fourth child of the elusive Josiah. Nancy and I are cautiously optimistic that we have located him in Dexter, Maine! The year of birth is correct but we are awaiting further confirmation as to month and day should it exist. I have contacted the Historical Society there in Dexter and found the most congenial and dedicated curator and researcher that I have come across in some time! They have found some preliminary information regarding his residence, charactor and profession. His origins were unknown to the society thus, hopefully, we may be able to share information. Briefly, the reason for generating this E mail is that we found this John to be a Methodist minister of 46 years as his stone relates. As you may recall, John's brother Moses (my line) named all his children with Biblical names, as did father Josiah. Other oddities as not being able to find concrete land purchases for Moses when there should be lends itself tospeculate about an itenerant ministers life. John seems to have only a land purchase later in life when he settled in Dexter. Question: Do we have a Methodist lay minister in Josiah Whitney? This is in light of the fact that Josiah has been noted in at least 3 different locations in N.B./Nova Scotia. As you know, Methodist ministers in this time frame stayed only 2 to 3 years at the most in any one location Regards, Larry Tracy.