I just joined this mailing list last night. I got two indirect responses - one of which turned out to be a surname (Maxwell) for someone that married my fourth cousin and the other surname (Pratt) sounded familiar but was not in my database as a relative. OK folks, sounds like there is a 50-50 chance so far that I'm related to your ancestors/relatives in Bureau County either through blood or marriage. Shall we put it to the test just for fun? Some of the surnames are ABEL, ALBRECHT, ANDERSON, FINDLEY, FORDHAM, FREASE, HEATON, IODER, HENSEL, NOBLE, STEELE, ZEARING and there are some marriage connections to ELDRIDGE, WILSON, SCOTT. There are plenty more that I could list if I wasn't so tired right now. I spent a good part of my first 20+ years in Bureau County. My ancestors were among the very first settlers. Meet my challenge...send me your Bureau County names! Only sure Bureau County names count in this test! We'll see if I can keep up to 50-50 relative ratio! I don't know how many people are on this mailing list but I will be visiting family in Bureau County later this month and am willing to TRY to do some look-ups at the library (in the OBIT files, marriage index, Bureau Co. Republican microfilm). Just sent me specific names and exact or approximate dates soon and I'll see what I can do. I won't be going to the court house this trip so please don't request birth certificates, wills, etc. that are normally found in the courthouse files. We'll see if I'm ambitious or crazy by the number of responses I get. Linda Matthews