Hello family, Colleen asked me to write a note if I had found some cousins after my posting on James J. Bowers of KY and IL in hopes that it would encourage some of you on the list, especially newbies. After being on the Bower list for about 2 years, my message on James J. Bowers got a response from a cross-posting on the Bowers list. You never know when you are going to find something. More and more people are doing genealogy every day and someone is bound to appear sooner or later and you both will be able to fill in some missing pieces of the puzzle and help each other research further. While I was not able to go any further back than the oldest ancestor I presently have, I was able to fill in another child of that ancestor. I might add that Colleen is right in her Sunday Coffee section to newbies on posting queries...you definitely need to give details in queries. Giving one name with a birthdate and deathdate is not enough for someone to recognize that they may be a cousin. Locations are important. Sometimes where they lived for a time, if different from the birthplace or deathplace, can even be of help. Listing known children is definitely a help. I was sent a group sheet in response to a letter I had written which was what I posted. If the person who sent that sheet to me had only sent one name, then I could have easily discounted the information as probably not mine and we would've never connected. But he gave me lots of details. With that, I was able to recognize several children's names as family names as well as the KY counties and know immediately that James Bowers of IL was one of the unknown siblings of my ggg-grandfather who had gone south to MS. Where most of my ancestors had typically migrated in the southern states, James went north. Remember that descendants have gone everywhere in the U.S., so you never know where you will find a connection. In summary, don't give up. Look everywhere for your ancestors. Don't discount e-mails of Bower/s in areas you think couldn't possibly be where your relatives might have lived. It's helpful to scan all the Bower/s e-mails even if the subject line lists Bowers of NY and your group is OH. You never know. And newbies, while you're waiting to connect with someone on the list, there's plenty of other places to do research. You can visit the Mormon family history center nearest you and your local library may even have begun a genealogy corner that could help. Don't forget to call those aunts, uncles and cousins you already talked to once before...they just might have one more tidbit to add since your last conversation. Happy Hunting!