Hello, I think it was over the weekend I saw a news story on TV which talked about a small suitcase which was found either floating or at the bottom of the ocean - off the coast of Texas. Officials think it might have gone into the ocean because of one of the bad hurricanes which happened in Texas. The small suitcase (or small box) had family-pictures, family-wedding information, family-reports, etc. And, some names were available. They'd like to return the suitcase to its owner. Unfortunately, I just searched on-line, and can't find the news story. I don't know whether I heard the news on my local (Boston) TV news shows, or the TODAY show, etc. Also, while I was searching on-line for the story, I found another story about finding a suitcase with family information in it. This happened in Colorado. http://www.greeleytribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040922/NEWS/109220070/0/FRONTPAGE ... I thought I would take this opportunity to remind people of a "holiday gift" which might be appreciated. While Christmas shopping for my grandchildren in a dept. store yesterday, I walked by a selection of "fire-proof boxes" for sale. The kind you put your "important papers" in. I was pleased to see that these boxes are now also "water-proof." Floods, both major and small, can happen at any time, in any place, for any reason. The boxes I saw yesterday were not expensive. Unfortunately, for genealogists, we would need to buy 100 of them - to put all our papers in. :o) But, you could put a few, genealogy documents and CD's in it. Just a reminder to put your name and contact information inside the box. Betty (near Lowell, MA, USA) Note: While searching for the news article about that suitcase, I found at least 10 sites which offered news stories about "bodies" found in suitcases. :o( Some stories were in the US and some in the UK and in other countries. I didn't know this was such a common "thing to do."