Hello, <<< I read your very wonderful posts about all your ancestors going back to England. It just really interest me because with my family I can not even connect yet, to anyone past my husband's grandfather (born around 1908). One set of Collins can be found, another set just wants to keep hiding. (unbelievable). >>> In your case, I would get in contact with some of your closer cousins just slightly up your tree. Find them, phone them, and you will start to find out all of the ''other half'' of the family stories that never came down your line of family. Also make sure to get in contact with the female lines where the surname would have changed into female lines. All these descendants will still have huge knowledge about their ancestry somewhere in this. Trust me!!! Break out of the shell you are in, and get in contact with lines near to yours, and those people you might never have made contact with before. It will be the quickest way to break the gap. You will find that there is a reason for every single problem in a tree like this. But 1908 is too close for a relatively close cousin not to know horbs ('lots') on your tree. Do it, you won't regret it as soon as you start speaking to lost close cousins. But you must include the female connection surnames too, don't just concentrate on Collins surname only, all the descendant lines will have some knowledge about this and that. You will find that someone in the family will know just about everything. It's true. My one maternal cousin in Zims knows everything, has boxes of family photos, knows everyone in them by name, their story, the family secrets, and there are a few, start here, and see how it goes .... I am not a Collins researcher as such, and neither is this Markham line mine. I am genetically divorced from both thus far. I have an interest in one of the most complex and intriguing Markham tree problems there is, and I am trying to align this Markham alongside the Collins tree to see where it can take me. These Collins trees are interesting though. There is a huge contingent of Collins in this region of London we have looked at. I also suggest you do the dee thang (dna), so you can at least get your grouping. 1908 is too close, you have to ask your own cousins about it first, they will know somewhere along the line. There is always a reason for these stops in trees, always. In my next post I will give an ending post on Tim Collins. A classic example of how and why a tree research grinds into a stop and halt.... "I sometimes wonder how many people can actually sit back and consider how lucky one can be to experience a Human life on Earth? To be able to have one chance to see the Universe and wonder about it. Can you imagine a Universe without Life, nothing would know it was even there at all ...." S.K.M. Cheers - Super Ken [!!!] =======================================