No answers yet to my second challenge. I'll admit, it's kind of a tricky problem, so here are a few more clues:
- All you need is Google (this might also help).
- Search for John Alfred Ross first, and find an interesting fact about him.
- By "interesting" I mean it can't possibly be true.
- Keeping that interesting fact (and the type of page where you found it) in mind, search for Jeremiah J. Pearson.
- While you're Googling, remember that first names aren't always first, and middle initials can be a nuisance.
- In John's case, the "interesting fact" may be the result of an error in 2002. In Jeremiah's case, the error occurred in 1842 or thereabouts.
Chris, I had some fun with this one!
The two men share an impossible date... Jeremiah J. Pearson apparently died on 31 Feb 1842 (see the picture at http://cordova.lib.il.us/pearson_jeremiah.jpg) and, according to the transcription of Old Burnet Cemetery in Burnet, TX, John Alfred Ross was born on 31 Feb 1842. (See http://www.interment.net/data/us/tx/burnet/oldburnet/oldburnet.htm). The transcription was done in 2002.
Yes! See my additional comments over at the original post.
Just googling the date "31 Feb 1842" yields 6 hits, so I tried a few other years. There are some pages which contain a February 31 date for every year I tried, including 2007. For dates since the 1960s, you get a lot of hits, most of which aren't actual dates, though there are always a few.