Dear Listers -- Just a note to say don't give up on making headway in your research. Serendipty is alive and well! Perhaps you have an address or a notation on the back of old photograph that can provide a breakthrough. A couple years ago I posted a query to an e-mail list regarding a few WWI era "mystery photos" I had acquired copies of at a FORD/GEORGE family reunion in Milwaukie, OR. One photo from an album was of a group of soldiers taken in England identified as - "A. G. FORD, Reg. CARGILL and Fred BLOOMFIELD." I wondered if "A. G." could be my father's eldest brother, but since I had been given incorrect information by an aunt years before re Alfred's middle name, I wasn't sure. I knew that Alfred FORD had been born in Liverpool, father Michael Ford/e from Ireland and mother Sarah Ann GEORGE, a Liverpudlian, and that the family had lived at #50 New Road, Tuebrook, West Derby, Liverpool, Lancashire England for 30 years ending circa 1922-23. After posting the scant notations on the back of three photos with some descriptions to the e-mail list, I finally heard back from a lister who said that he knew someone in Brackley Northants, England, whose father was a Reginald CARGILL with Liverpool connections and gave me his address. Knowing that it was a longshot, I nevertheless copied a couple of the old photos and sent a letter off to England three weeks ago, enclosing a prepaid IRC (International Reply Coupon) from the postoffice for stamps for a reply. I asked if he recognized any of the people in the photos. Imagine my delight when I received a reply yesterday morning. Turns out this gentleman's CARGILL family and my FORD family were neighbors and friends for years on New Road in Liverpool. The CARGILL family had a provisions shop. Enclosed in his letter to me was an absolutely wonderful photograph of my paternal grandmother, Mrs. Sarah (George) FORD, in her "best dress" taken with his CARGILL family circa 1931. Sarah had been widowed and emigrated to the USA in 1925, then returned back to visit family and friends in England a few years later. He said she had stayed with them for three months and that he was the little boy "front and centre" in the photograph. Mr. CARGILL said that he was a writer and painter and almost 82. My letter had made his day! He knew that my uncle Alfred had resided in Seattle (true!). He also said that his father, like Alfred, his friend, had been injured by mustard gas but survived the war. They were evidently in the Somme in 1918 together with its terrible fighting (60,000 Allied troups dead in one day!) and were army buddies as part of the "Liverpool Pals" Battalions. He said that his father and my uncle likely attended school together and possibly also church, so I will try to find out something more regarding St. John's. Bottom line - Keep searching, don't give up! Jean