Hello List, I have really enjoyed reading Chris's story and the subsequent replies. My own story is not necessarily spooky, but my joining the list was certainly timely. Like Martin Mitchell, I have wondered about later connections between the Palatines who settled in Ireland and those who went to America in 1710 -- specifically between my IP Ruckle line and the Ruckel line who trace back to early Pennsylvania. We've never known for sure if those Ruckels were part of the New York contingent or if they immigrated from the Palatinate on their own a few years later. To my knowledge no one has yet been able to establish a sure link between the two branches before or after 1709, though many have tried and continue to do so. Two weeks ago I joined the IP list and heard about the Fort Klock web site for the first time. I looked it over and had the names of New York Palatine settlements fresh in my mind when last week I received some data from an internet cousin on our common Kelts line that neither of us had been able to trace. The name of Stone Arabia, New York caught my attention. Because of my reading on all things Palatine, I was aware of history that the cousin knew nothing about, and went again to the Fort Klock site where I found numerous references to Kilts, Keltz, Kills, Hilts, Hultz, Huls, etc. -- all variants of the family name we've been researching. Now I know that with the marriage in 1909 of my grandparents (Edward H. Ruckle and Mabel Laurene Spencer - grand daughter of Nicholas Kelts) there was at least one link between Irish and New York Palatines. We sometimes help each other along in unexpected ways. Thanks...................Karen Opgenorth