My friends - I hope all of you had a pleasant Thanksgiving holiday. Unfortunately, my wife and I were both ill all day yesterday with some type of mild flu bug. We are better today, but not 100% yet. I want to pass along the solution to the latest Skills Puzzler. We had 71(the highest number for any SP so far) folks who tried this one, and about 90% of those who did offer their thoughts were right on target. You will recall that our problem concerned a man named Colquatt whose death in MA was recorded in an old family Bible as having occurred in the month of January. However, two other sources show that he was buried in early May of the same year. The question we had was whether we should discount one set of records or the other, and if so, why. Most of those who responded spotted the fact that Massachusetts in a very northern area, in which the ground freezes solidly in the winter, and graves could not be opened by hand digging during the winter. Thus, the bodies of those who died in the winter were kept until the Spring thaws and were buried at that time. So all three records, in this case, were correct. He died in January, but was actually buried in May. The month of May seems a bit late for the burial to take place, but it may have been a particularly harsh winter, and the ground may not have thawed sufficiently until May. Interestingly, in further research later on, the lady whose line this was discovered a manuscript collection which contained documents on this period in MA history, and there was mention of the "body houses" where the "winter deaths" were held until they could be buried. I understand, from comments from several who responded to this Puzzler, that this practice continues in that area, in some locations, even today. This was a good response on this Puzzler, and most of them were, as I said above, on the mark. -B ============================================================