Hi all, Happy Holidays! Hope this finds you and yours with Decked Halls and Boughs of Holly all filled with Cheer... As for me, I've been "surfing" and have suddenly, with the help of my cousin, got some new clues that may hook me up with ANY of you! Here is the family group I am looking at: William Henry Dewhurst m. Mary Pearson 10 DEC 1840 St. Pancras, Middlesex, London. Their known issue of 9-11 children: 1) Caroline Jane b. 21OCT 1841, Kentish Town, London, England, m. Frederick Robert Huskinson 25JUN1875, Penge, Surrey, England 2) Mary Elizabeth b. 31AUG1843, Kentish Town, London, England (family notes suggest she remained a spinster and was Matron of Guy's Hospital - still to be confirmed, can you help?) 3) Madeline b. 16FEB1849, Finchley, London, England m. Frederick William McDonald 8JULY1871, Shoreditch, Middlesex, England (family notes suggest he was a teacher/professor of English at a private school - to be confirmed) 4) James William Dewhurst b. 2FEB1852, Finchley, Middlesex, England m. Ellen Elizabeth Reeves 25DEC1874, Hoxton, Middlesex, England (our direct line) Here's our "breakthrough"... family notes had suggested a sister was married to a "Dr. Erwin Lynch, professor of botany at Cambridge University, credited with growing the first tomatoe, from seeds, in England, and eating same. Kew Garden in Kent, England, have agreenhouse named for him (so I am told)." It had never been confirmed... Well, my surfing took me to the Kew Gardens site where they had a search engine (!!). I poked in "Lynch" and up popped an entry noting that "Richard Irwin Lynch (1850-1924)" is the author of a plant name in the "S - Spermatophytes (flowering plants and gymnosperms)" plant group. I emailed the Kew Librarian and got the following: "According to Ray Desmond's Dictionary of British & Irish Botanists & Horticulturists &c. (1994), Richard Irwin Lynch was born at St. Germans in Cornwall on 1 June 1850; he died at Torquay in Devon on 7 December 1924. He was a gardener at Kew from 1867, and was Curator of the Botanic Garden of Cambridge University 1879-1919. He published a "List of ferns and fern allies in the Botanic Garden, Cambridge" 1897, and The Book of the Iris in 1904." I'll take it! The dates and times are right - they just left off a name! Only problem, we have no idea what the name of the sister is! Can you help! And, while you are at it.... Further notes say a brother, James was a Scotland Yard Detective who did not marry, spent most of his life in Tangiers and Algiers in service to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria and died in London. Then notes suggest the family had land in Edinburgh, Scotland. Clearly, we are missing the names of a bunch of siblings.... If any of this "rings a bell" for any of you and you can help us connect further, please "jingle" your "bells" our way??? I realize no one but me is nuts enough to be doing this a week before Christmas, nevertheless, how about everyone reposting their info AFTER the first of the year so we can all take a new look at each other??? WE are up to 27 researchers; a small but very special group! Happy Holidays! Jana Black Listowner, DEWHURST-L