Charles, Not altogether. Now that I think of it, I don't know where I read that T. A. Conrad was related to R. T. Abbott. Wheeler's biography of T. A. Conrad is at hand, however, and according to that source, the Abbott and Conrad families intermarried at least twice. Timothy Abbott Conrad (1803-1877) was the son of Solomon White Conrad (1779-1831) and Elizabeth Abbott. TAC had sisters, Susan and Lucy. His nieces included Mary G. Abbott. TAC never married and had no children. The family lived in Pennsylvania. TAC's sister, Susan Conrad, married Timothy Abbott; her children included Dr. Charles C. Abbott, himself a collector, who inherited TAC's papers. Unfortunately, his house later burned and the papers were destroyed along with his own library. CCA's children included Richard Mauleverer Abbott and Julia Boggs Abbott. RMA was alive in 1934, when Wheeler was putting the last touches on his biography of TAC. Do any of these Abbotts sound familiar to those who knew R. Tucker Abbott? What's the connection? Andrew K. Rindsberg Geological Survey of Alabama Reference Wheeler, H. E., 1935, Timothy A. Conrad, with particular reference to his work in Alabama one hundred years ago: Paleontological Research Institution, Bulletins of American Paleontology, no. 77, 157 p. Reprint edition 1977 (still in print, I believe).