Thanks...I really appreciate all of your help...it's encouraging. Something just "hit" me. Bear with me here while I explain this, ok? :) Half of my family heritage I know nothing about. My mother (Shirley Harris b. 1935) met a French Canadian named "Gil Vachon" in Portland Oregon (about 1956-1957)...not sure of the spelling when she was young. She became pregnant and when she told him, he panicked and disappeared for a short while. In the interim, another guy who was in love with her offered to marry her and rescue her reputation and so she married him. What she didn't know was that this "Gil Vachon" had tried to reach her a few weeks later through her parents and they told him to "hit the curb" and never come back. I learned about this when I was about 16. Ok. The only Gil Vachon (could be Gilles Vachon, Vashon, Gilford, etc.) that I can locate, that would match the approximate correct age, living here in the United States lives where? According to my internet searches: Casa Grande, Arizona. I keep hitting a brick wall because apparently he lives in a mobile home park or it is a "winter" home and I only have the address, not the name of the place and the units/homes are numbered. The number address is not listed and the telephone is disconnected. My attempts to contact the few other "Vachon's in and near Casa Grande have been met with silence. sigh.... Anyway, I don't know if you would be interested or able to do a little sleuthing around. It would mean a lot to me to be able to locate and meet this man and find out about the other side of my family tree. The man who did marry my mother turned out to unfortunately suffer from severe schizophrenia and became an alcoholic. She fled from the marriage when I was about 4 years old. He never considered me to be his daughter. I may be out of town until Sunday...won't know until my husband gets out of bed. :) What do you think? Do you have any ideas? gratefully, Carmel