This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/jEC.2ACE/1350.1 Message Board Post: Springvale is a township, (not a village or city) and measures 6 miles by 6 miles square. Listing Springvale as a place of birth, likely means that your ancestor was a farmer and owned land. It is rare to find that a birth in the 1840's would be recorded in the county, and the only place to find a specific date would likely be a family bible. However, you could order the 1850 census for Fond du Lac county, WI, and search through the township of Springvale for your ancestor as a small child. The census would then show the names of his parents. Census records can be ordered to be searched at your local library, through inter-library loan, saving yourself a research trip if necessary. Tracy Reinhardt