A few years ago I visited Ireland on vacation, and being as Irish as Paddy's pig, decided to do what all good Irishmen do -- some ancestral research in Meath. I didn't have much luck digging around by myself. I even knocked on a lot of doors in Longwood and Hill of Downs, but no one had ever heard of my surname there. I must say, though, that everyone who came to the door on which I knocked was extremely friendly and tried to help wherever they could. "Oh," one charming lady commented, "you're a Yank! Come in. you're just in time for tea." As it turned out, I told here more about where I came from than she could tell me about my ancestors. When I came home and earnestly got into this ancestor search on the web, I contacted the Meath Heritage and Genealogy Centre in Trim by letter, a write-up of what I knew about them, and a modest search fee. About three weeks later I received a letter from a lady named Carmel Rice and -- bingo! -- she found them. They had passed through Longwood in 1861. I don't yet know from where they originally came, but I'm working on it. I'll probably go back to the Heritage Centre. So have faith. With patience and determination things will work out. All things come to he who sits and waits. Cassidy