Were Ava's ages in the 1850, 1860, 1870 censuses approximately in agreement with your birth date of January, 1835? (You say 18 in 1850, so that's 3 years off for most of the year of 1850.) Do you have or can you get the marriage bond for Mary Willis to George Fields? Often the bond will say whether or not it is a first marriage. Same question for Ava and Hiram. The children living with Ava and Hiram don't have to belong (by birth) to either of them. Families often took in children from related families who had lost parents by sickness, etc. Three of my grandparents, for instance, were raised as "orphans" when their mothers died young. They were all raised by aunts. ----- Original Message ----- From: <PammiPooh@aol.com> To: <WILLIS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 4:08 PM Subject: Willis/Fields/Russells > > 1 Mary Polly Willis b: 1804 > .. +George Fields b: 1804 d: Abt. 1880 in Union County, TN. > ....... 2 Ava J. Willis/Fields? b: January 1835 in Claiborne Co. TN d: > Aft. 1900 > ............ +Hiram Russell b: September 24, 1833 in Claiborne Co. TN > d: October 06, 1868 in Claiborne Co. TN > > The above mentioned Mary Polly Willis married George Fields in 1846. In the > 1850 TN Census her daughter Ava was 18, so she couldn't possibly be George > Fields daughter. I'm trying to discover if Mary Polly Willis was married > before or was Ava born out of wedlock? > > Ava Willis/Fields interestingly enough is listed in the 1850 TN census as Ava > Fields. Then listed in the 1860 TN census as Ava/Avy Willis. By the next > census she's married to Hiram Russell. To complicate matters Ava and Hiram > have living with 2 children born long before they were married to one > another. I haven't figured out if they are Hirams children from another > marriage or her children born out of wedlock like she was. > > Does anyone recognize this Mary Polly Willis or Ava/Avy Willis? I'd be happy > to share what else I do have on these folks. > > Pamela Burnette > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > > >