About 1849 a man named Lemuel Washington CRUCE died in Anderson County, TX, leaving a widow -- Malinda JONES CRUCE -- and her 7 children: Sarah, Stephen, William, John K., Hannah C., Nancy J., and Mary M. The widow, Malinda, married a man named John BLAIR on 15 November 1849, also in Anderson County, TX.

Malinda, born 1815 in KY, was a daughter of Jesse JONES and Hannah Pomeroy KILLOUGH, early settlers in Houston County, TX.

By 1850, the BLAIR family was living in Houston County, TX. The children are all listed, but their surname (CRUCE) is not -- so some researchers have listed them all, in error, as BLAIR children. By the 1860 census this family seems to have disappeared, except for a Riley BLAIR in Houston County living with a young couple -- Robert EARLS and his wife Nancy J.

I know what happened to Sarah (she married James KYLE). I know that Stephen J. (the "J" stands for Jesse) married Martha Ellen Bobbitt and died in Hill County, TX in 1910. What about the other children? I had thought that my Nancy J. CRUSE (my gr-grandmother) who married Robert BISHOP was the same as this Nancy J. CRUCE; but the Nancy J. EARLS in the 1860 census seems to plug up that theory.

If anyone can shed any light on this problem, I would be ever so grateful.

Nancy Shire
Oro Valley, AZ