I learned much here. Of course, I have questions but those can wait. The stories you weave here are pretty colorful and worthy of exploration. I loved reading the Arkansas stuff. I remember reading that the Arkansas plantation system went bankrupt (how you do that is amazingly insane). My great great grandfather was from Arkansas. Icum (Isome) Gilmore. My grandfather is on the 1880 census as a 2 year old in Louisiana as a child of Isome. My grandfather was born in 1878 in New Iberia, Louisiana but his father is from Arkansas. I wonder if after emancipation they got the hell out of there. My grandfather is light skinned but he is listed as a Negro. No way he can pass or any of that. I suspect his folks looked similar. There is a city in Arkansas called "Gilmore." I researched that a bit and got nothing. The trail, as it usually does for African Americans, dries up. I got it back to 1820 but then nothing. Gilmore is a Scot-Irish name. They were as we all know the dregs of Europe, usually relegated to second class status just above the Africans. it is such a puzzle we live which is why when the puzzle is put together some, I like reading it.