Jane Lyons wrote: Maybe let us get to know one another. I'm from the county (Laois)......don;t live there at the moment...........but I do love it...........and you - or most of you I imagine - have family froim there - want to know more. and if my sister has her way - it won't be graveyards I'll be hopping around in this weekend..........it'll be step dancing in Coolrain!!! Jane Hello Jane et al., Your comment about us all having family from Laois has prompted me to drop a note. I previously sent in a request asking if anyone knew anything about my great great grandparents, Susanna Meredith and James Clarke, who came from Maryborough. Several people responded to that query and I now know a bit more about some of their relatives who also came from what was then Queen's County. You may be interested to know that Frederick Banting, co-discoverer of insulin, was a grandson of Susannah's sister. His Banting grandparents, possibly his father as well, were from the Maryborough (now Portlaoise) area. For the Canadians on the list, Dr. William Clarke who lived in Guelph, Ontario was also born near Maryborough (I suspect he and James were related, possibly brothers, as they lived very near one another in Ontario). William married Laura Secord, daughter of the Canadian heroine Laura Secord. Laura Sr. is well known by Canadians for her role in alerting the British in the Niagara region to a planned attack by the "Yankees." The Laura Secord candy company may be better known than the real Laura to those of you from outside of Canada. Sharon Haggerty London, ON Canada Home Page: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sharonmh/descendan/open.htm Haggerty Web Page currently being revised