In a message dated 2/1/04 4:41:53 PM Pacific Standard Time, ktlkate@extremezone.com writes: > If you're talking about Melvina Connelly (I bet I spelled her last name > wrong), someone has their wires crossed, big time I don't know who ordered the destruction of the records or why it was done. It's great that she was helpful for you, and it very possibly was someone higher up than Mel Connelly who called for the files to be cleaned up. In any case, all I can tell you is about my own personal experience. I first wrote to the St. Louis Civil Courts on July1 996 requesting naturalization records for my grandfather, Henry B. Kekmann. Later I called them and was told by a man to direct my request to Mel Conley, Data Processing which I did. I got no reply. I wrote again in 1998 and this time sent it Attn: Mel Conley, Data Processing. No reply. Wrote again in 1999 and that time I enclosed a check for $10.00. Of course I had sent SASEs with all of my letters. I called again and actually talked to Mel and she said she "had something on her desk" from me ...but I never got anything back. Maybe she just didn't like to answer mail. So I went back to my maternal lines and spent time on them. But, in 2003, I decided to pursue the Kerkmann line again and this time I called and talked to Keith Hudson who told me to contact Kathy Grillo, the Records Manager in the Circuit Clerk's Office. I called her and she told me that Mel had retired and the naturalization petitions were destroyed in 1980, but they had the index cards. She said she had been there when they were destroyed and she and Mel complained but "higher ups" said the files were "too messy" (i.e. documents pulled and not refiled, sitting in boxes, etc.) so they were destroyed. Also last year, I hired a professional genealogist in St. Louis and she confirmed that the records had been destroyed and told me the story about doing research in the basement and the messy files and how her son's Eagle scout troop had volunteered to clean up the mess but were turned down. The quote I included in my previous email about not wanting a bunch of scouts running around is what she said someone told them. I have no reason to think she made the story up. That's all I know. Just another brick wall. In my search for my maternal ancestors in Prince George County, Virginia I discovered most of the records were destroyed during the War of 1812 and again by Union soldiers in the Civil War. That's what makes family history research interesting....we're always looking for other sources when the easy one aren't available. But I'm glad you asked. Glodean