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/2dWBAEB/76.89.1.1 Message Board Post: I'm intrigued with your research on an Alexander Winfield from Ohio who appeared in Texas in the 1880(?) census. My great-grandfather was named Thomas Alexander Winfield. He was born in 1847 in Canfield, Mahoning County, Ohio. He lived in Ohio all his life. He died in Niles, Trumbull County, Ohio, in 1925. I have enough information on his life to know he never lived in Texas. In 1880, he and his first wife were producing a baby in Niles (their 4th) and the wife would die two years later in Hubbard, Trumbull County, Ohio, from tuberculosis. Thomas Alexander Winfield remarried and had six more children (all in Ohio). However, it's interesting that your ancestor had the name Alexander Winfield. I can tell you how I think the name came about. My Thomas Alexander Winfield had a step-great-grandfather named Alexander Rose. Even though it was a "step," there was apparently some affection for the "step" family. But an even likelier possibility is that my Thomas Alexander! Winfield was named after Thomas and Alexander Campbell -- the founders of the Campbellite movement, which later was renamed the Church of Christ. My Winfield family emigrated to Philadelphia from Leicestershire, England, in 1830, and immediately hooked up with Alexander Campbell. They became founding members of the Campbellite Church in Philadelphia, and continued when they moved to Ohio. It's likely they moved to Ohio because the Western Reserve was such a stronghold of the Campbellites and the center of the religious revival at the time (1820s and 1830s). "Thomas" is a family name, but "Alexander" was never in the family on either the mother's or father's side (unless you count the step-great-grandfather), so I'm opting for the Campbells as the source of Thomas Alexander Winfield's name. Now, as for whether or not there's any connection between your Alexander Winfield of Ohio and my Thomas Alexander Winfield of Ohio, I don't know. I want to say "no," but I hate to s! lam the door shut on any possibility of a long-lost relative. My Thomas Alexander Winfield had an uncle (William Winfield) in Canfield, who had sons (but I haven't come across an Alexander) and I pretty much know all the descendants. I'm not aware of any other relatives. There was, however, a Henry Winfield living near my Winfields in Ohio who we've never been able to pinpoint. He may have been a cousin. Not a close relative, in any event. If any of this information helps anyone, let me know. I'd be happy to share more.