Well, I have finally found where I got the genealogy/history bug! I knew there was a strain of genealogy fever in the family because a cousin has it too...her son travels for a living and is made to stop at places like the vital records offices in England and Wales! But it goes back further than them. People ask "so when did you get into genealogy?" and I had thought about that for a couple years....finally I remembered that as a child I would look through the phone book for my last name and call people at random. It's an uncommon name, so I only annoyed "family" in this way... I found my uncle George Huish listed and would call him often after that...I was maybe 11 yrs old. I was looking for family ties early on....now the other day at the library I found the connection with him...just wish he hadnt passed away years ago, I could've learned so much! >From a book about East Chicago's History: "Until the 60s, most residents of the Twin Cities paid scant attention to their community's history because many of them had lived through it. Faced with it's 75th anniversary, however, a group of local citizens formed the East Chicago Historical Society, whose Founders' meeting was held May 26, 1968. (EXACTLY 2 weeks before I was born, to the day!) Officers elected at the meeting are shown here. In the front row were Rose LeVan, historian; Melvin Specter, secretary; GEORGE HUISH, PRESIDENT; and Ezelyn Johnston, board member. In the back row were Paul Zahara, treasurer; Dan Simon, board member; Hubert H. Hawkins, secretary of the Indiana Historical Society; and Willard Van Horne, Jr., vice president. Missing were Mrs. H. E. Zoeger, third vice president; William Riley, first vice president; and board members Colonel Walter J. Riley, Mayor John Nicosa, M.D., Robert L. Smith; G. Galvan; W. M. Young; Hans Peterson; Margaret Jones; A. P. Davis; and John Fox." <A HREF="http://members.aol.com/anolelady/echist.jpg">http://members.aol.com/anolelady/echist.jpg</A> (PHOTO) So I guess it was some kind of fate for me to appreciate my family's and local towns histories. I'm trying to pass it on to my daughters, ages 15 and 8, and they do love hearing about ancestors, and seeing the collection of family pictures I have dating back to the 1800s, they seem very intrigued by "the old days" and what our predecessors lives were like...so maybe someday they will carry on everything that George somehow passed on to me. Kathy --------------- Firstmom's Genealogy Resources http://khuish.tripod.com/ Lake County IN GenWeb http://www.rootsweb.com/~inlake