Hi All, Its good to start to hear from you again. I've been concerned about our little community. So I just thought I'd check in and let you know that my immediate family is all OK. We're hurting in so many ways, but we're together, healing, and starting to "hunker down" and get prepared for what we family elders think we see coming. And, I've never seen anything like this in my 58 years. Thank heavens my Dad and his older brother are still alive. Their counsel will be invaluable to me. And they're the elders in charge - still. I've been working with Rochelle, our Boone Compass editor, on an article about my Captain Hawkins Boone for an upcoming issue of the Boone Society newsletter. Rochelle has been very, very helpful to (and patient with) me. Its been many years since I've published anything on paper. I'm terribly excited about this. It will be great big step towards setting the printed record right on at least one old Rev War era story about the Pennsylvania Boon(e)'s. And, Compass reaches many of our Greatest Generation's genealogists who aren't online. I can't wait for the letters I hope to receive from them. Barbara, thanks for the information about Colonel Canfield D. Boone. I mourn all the lives we've lost. But his death makes it all just that much more personal to me. We've lost another Boone to war. He's the first Boone casualty I've heard of. I pray for his family - and all our families. I'm a helpless and eternal optimist. As I search for a silver lining in the monstrous cloud over our nation, I see a world staring to come together, in greater concert than I've ever witnessed. That gives me great hope for the future of mother earth, and my homeland. My research focus has been very narrow, as many of you know. As I've learned more and more about the lives and times of my ancestors, I've often pondered, with amazement, over what they went through to help carve out our great nation. I feel like the world we now face will become as strange and challenging to us as theirs was to them. I know we can all rise to the challenges ahead. They taught us how important that is and, by their examples down through our history, they taught us what we need to do. Larry God Bless Us All -- Larry DeFrance, Helena Montana USA Caretaker: The DeFrance Family Home Page - http://www.helenet.com/~larry/fam_home.html The DeFrance Mailing List - [email protected], The Susquehanna River Mailing List - [email protected] Co-Caretaker: The Boone Mailing list - [email protected]