Ohmigosh. Quick recap: What we "knew" when I started: Dad's paternal grandfather, John Franklin "Frank" Pickering, was born in 1876 in Missouri. He moved to Greene County, OH, as an infant after his mother - born Victoria Orndorff - died. His father, Virginia native and blacksmith Joseph Pickering, had moved to Missouri before the Civil War and fought for the Confederacy. What I've learned since taking up this hobby in 1997: Joseph F. Pickering and Victoria (probably her middle name, true first name either Elizabeth or Eliza) Orndorff married on a Greene County, OH, license in 1869 and were living in Spring Valley in 1870. They had two children about four or five years before Frank. Some data says all three were born in MO, some that all were born in OH, and all possible combinations in between. This has made placing the move in time difficult. Joseph F. Pickering was born in Hampshire County, VA - or at least to a family that lived there at the time - in the early 1840s. I can place him there in 1850 and 1860, by which time he was a blacksmith. I can find no record of his service in the War Between the States. His pre-War census ages subtract to an 1841 birth, but he is only 25 in the 1870. He remains within three years of an 1845 birth the rest of his census life; his 1913 obit gives his birth year as 1842. Joseph's father was Virginia native and longtime (maybe life-long) Hampshire County resident Hiram Pickering, whom I can place in the county in 1828, 1836, 1840, 1848, 1850 and 1856. There is also a census entry fitting him in 1810 - no name, of course. I thought he died between 1856 and 1860, based on his wife's solo presence in the 1860 census, but I now believe it just as likely that he simply left hearth and home after his third financial meltdown in '56. Now, the ohmigoshes - thanks to a visit to Xenia during a trip to Ohio: Trying to place the move to Missouri, I went through the Greene County Birth Records looking for his siblings, Charles and Margaret. I did not find them ... but I did find entry number 430, recorded with many others on June 15, 1877, that says that on October 17, 1876, John Pickering was born in Greene County, OH, to Joseph F. Pickering and Victoria (nee) Ornduff of that county. There is a comments column, which is devoid of anything like "birth took place in Missouri, where mother has since died." Nope, according to this and contrary to a "fact" I've known since I was a boy that is supported by a family bible entry and many census entries, John Franklin Pickering was a Greene County, OH, native. Or is the delay in the entry - common at the time - reason to suspect some mistake? Joseph appears in the 1890 special veterans census! He was a private in Company H, 114th infantry. There are two things unique, at least to the page, about his entry: while every other listing gives a state (10 Ohios and an Indiana), his does not; while every other listing has exact dates of enlistment and discharge, his enlistment column gives merely a year, 1861, his discharge column is blank, and his length of service column says two years. Was he vague because he was a Confederate? Because he had a memory like mine? Or because he didn't actually serve? A book listing Greene County soldiers who fought in the late War, AFTER 30 YEARS, has one Pickering besides Joseph and his brother William: a private in Company I 31st Infantry named Hiram Pickering. Surely my Hiram was too old for the War Between the States - 58 when it started - but what other Hiram was in Greene County, OH, within five years after my Hiram disappeared from Virginia? This Hiram is not in the special census, but of course my Hiram would've been 87 by then. Feedback? Researching these 8 greats: Pickering-Snyder-Roach-Teegardin-Hodges-Evans-Kantner-Shifflet + these contributing Pickering/Snyder lines: Orndorff-Kinsey-Beall And, of course, many more! Peruse our entire GEDCOM at http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/~kpickering ONWARD AND BACKWARD! Kurt Pickering, IBSSG La Vergne, TN _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com