They could have been Alsatians and still been German ... just depended on what duke, prince, king, whatever title, won the gang war/border squabble of the week. And after all the Franks were Germans back in the day of Karl Magnus (Charlemagne). Yes the infighting was that bad and that's why so many came in the mid 1800s. And where their sympathies lay before arriving in the US influenced the their declared country of allegiance. My half Cajun grandfather's ancestors were reported in family oral history by my grandmother (his wife who was 100% German ancestry and whose father did not want her to "marry that Frenchman from the country") to have come from from Alsace-Lorraine (maybe a more palatable place to her Pa because he could have had some German ancestry) and Grandpa Bob spoke Parisian French not "that French from the country". Not true. Can trace his mother's Cajun lineage all the way back to the 1500's from France (Provence area) to Acadie to St. Malo in the Grand Derangement in 1755 to NO and on Assumption parish then down the bayou in 1785. Not even a stop over in Paris. But my real brick wall is with my bayou great g/father whose name was Joseph Jones and whose civil/church records located to date (census, marriage, death) declare him to have been born in KY (in about 1839) with a father named William Jones and mother Elizabeth Duren (as spelled by the French priest at St. Joseph's in Thibodaux on his marriage certificate - but I think it was more likely Dunham or Durham) both born in KY. Have lots of Wm. Joneses in KY ... some even married to Elizabeths (Elizas, Lizzies, etc), but haven't found the right time slot for his birth. Europeans kept much better records than in the US the the old days. I suspect he came down the Mississippi on a keel, flat or raft boat and could only afford a ticket as far as Donaldsonville then was "disembarked" and walked the rest of the way following Bayou Lafourche until someone offered him a job and he met Adelina! Aaaww... thanks Joe and Adelina. On to the other thread about "whispering ancestors" ... this has happened to me so much over the years, I now say a little prayer before doing some especially intent research to ask their and a saint's help. Carolyn Long will love my spiritual practice. I pray to St. Anthony, the lost and found saint for you non-Catholics, that goes like this: "Tony, Tony look around something's (or someone's) lost that must be found" (a prayer taught to me by a coworker from Marksville many, many years ago) Than I offer him a monetary amount for the poor box (amount usually dependent on how important the intention is or how quickly I'd like a resolution). He nearly always comes through and I nearly always pay up. Now I don't mean this in a sacrilegious way. Just one of my techniques meaningful coincidences rather and blind pigs looking for acorns. Cate ;-} -----Original Message----- From: Kathy Cochran Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 1:57 PM To: laorlean@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] If you need help... Late night findings I'm curious about what you found AFTER he died, that wasn't available BEFORE he died. Also, some of my brick walls are living people. A 2nd cousin of mine REFUSES to believe that our Borns came from Germany, and were German throughout all the wars............because my grandmother and her mother had always reported that they were from Alsace-Lorraine. I have sent her the Declaration of Intent to Emmigrate, and birth docs, etc., but she thinks I am being "disrespectful and dismissive of the family lore." Nonetheless, it is apparent that since these stories were all passed down in the oral tradition, someone (probably my grandmother) may have been told "Alzey [Hesse-Darmstadt]" and then looked up in the Encyclopedia and found Alsace Lorraine, and erroneously construed that this was the origin of our ancestors. My cousin's Ancestry tree still shows "no father - no mother" for our g-g grandfather Jacob Born. Oh well, her loss. SHE is the brick wall! I seem to have busted through it! Cheers, Kathy -----Original Message----- From: laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Alexa Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 8:35 AM To: laorlean@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] If you need help... Late night findings Pat and everyone, If you need help, just give us a holler. Some ancestors are more difficult to find. Some lines I can Brees (wink) through in one long sitting while others I've worked on for decades with little luck. As bizarre as it sounds, I've had MAJOR breakthroughs when a family member dies. The night my uncle died, within about 2 hours of his death, I broke through the brickwall of his line, which is also my mother's. I'd been searching for the people for over 30 years, and that night I found several connections to the line and its branches that gave me tons, TONS, of new information. The next day I made a trip to the courthouse in Donaldsonville and found much, much more needed information. It's happened this way for me for my own relatives several times, as well as for other people's lines I've worked on. When a member of their families died, I found goldmines worth of info almost immediately. Who says the dead don't want to be found? Some, yes, but most want their families to know about them - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Alexa - Who Dat fan all the way Genealogy research since 1974 Ancestral hauntings - I ain't afraid-a no ghosts... --- On Thu, 6/21/12, PatFreeman5@aol.com <PatFreeman5@aol.com> wrote: From: PatFreeman5@aol.com <PatFreeman5@aol.com> Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] Fold 3 - Military Records To: laorlean@rootsweb.com Date: Thursday, June 21, 2012, 10:16 AM I am glad that your ancestors whisper to you, I just wish that some of mine would whisper or even YELL. I hate it when I can't find that fact that I need to put with an ancestor. Pat ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.2180 / Virus Database: 2437/5082 - Release Date: 06/20/12 ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Great story! Thanks for sharing! Kathy -----Original Message----- From: laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Cate Schweitzer-Toepfer Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 3:09 PM To: laorlean@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] If you need help... Late night findings They could have been Alsatians and still been German ... just depended on what duke, prince, king, whatever title, won the gang war/border squabble of the week. And after all the Franks were Germans back in the day of Karl Magnus (Charlemagne). Yes the infighting was that bad and that's why so many came in the mid 1800s. And where their sympathies lay before arriving in the US influenced the their declared country of allegiance. My half Cajun grandfather's ancestors were reported in family oral history by my grandmother (his wife who was 100% German ancestry and whose father did not want her to "marry that Frenchman from the country") to have come from from Alsace-Lorraine (maybe a more palatable place to her Pa because he could have had some German ancestry) and Grandpa Bob spoke Parisian French not "that French from the country". Not true. Can trace his mother's Cajun lineage all the way back to the 1500's from France (Provence area) to Acadie to St. Malo in the Grand Derangement in 1755 to NO and on Assumption parish then down the bayou in 1785. Not even a stop over in Paris. But my real brick wall is with my bayou great g/father whose name was Joseph Jones and whose civil/church records located to date (census, marriage, death) declare him to have been born in KY (in about 1839) with a father named William Jones and mother Elizabeth Duren (as spelled by the French priest at St. Joseph's in Thibodaux on his marriage certificate - but I think it was more likely Dunham or Durham) both born in KY. Have lots of Wm. Joneses in KY ... some even married to Elizabeths (Elizas, Lizzies, etc), but haven't found the right time slot for his birth. Europeans kept much better records than in the US the the old days. I suspect he came down the Mississippi on a keel, flat or raft boat and could only afford a ticket as far as Donaldsonville then was "disembarked" and walked the rest of the way following Bayou Lafourche until someone offered him a job and he met Adelina! Aaaww... thanks Joe and Adelina. On to the other thread about "whispering ancestors" ... this has happened to me so much over the years, I now say a little prayer before doing some especially intent research to ask their and a saint's help. Carolyn Long will love my spiritual practice. I pray to St. Anthony, the lost and found saint for you non-Catholics, that goes like this: "Tony, Tony look around something's (or someone's) lost that must be found" (a prayer taught to me by a coworker from Marksville many, many years ago) Than I offer him a monetary amount for the poor box (amount usually dependent on how important the intention is or how quickly I'd like a resolution). He nearly always comes through and I nearly always pay up. Now I don't mean this in a sacrilegious way. Just one of my techniques meaningful coincidences rather and blind pigs looking for acorns. Cate ;-} -----Original Message----- From: Kathy Cochran Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 1:57 PM To: laorlean@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] If you need help... Late night findings I'm curious about what you found AFTER he died, that wasn't available BEFORE he died. Also, some of my brick walls are living people. A 2nd cousin of mine REFUSES to believe that our Borns came from Germany, and were German throughout all the wars............because my grandmother and her mother had always reported that they were from Alsace-Lorraine. I have sent her the Declaration of Intent to Emmigrate, and birth docs, etc., but she thinks I am being "disrespectful and dismissive of the family lore." Nonetheless, it is apparent that since these stories were all passed down in the oral tradition, someone (probably my grandmother) may have been told "Alzey [Hesse-Darmstadt]" and then looked up in the Encyclopedia and found Alsace Lorraine, and erroneously construed that this was the origin of our ancestors. My cousin's Ancestry tree still shows "no father - no mother" for our g-g grandfather Jacob Born. Oh well, her loss. SHE is the brick wall! I seem to have busted through it! Cheers, Kathy -----Original Message----- From: laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Alexa Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 8:35 AM To: laorlean@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] If you need help... Late night findings Pat and everyone, If you need help, just give us a holler. Some ancestors are more difficult to find. Some lines I can Brees (wink) through in one long sitting while others I've worked on for decades with little luck. As bizarre as it sounds, I've had MAJOR breakthroughs when a family member dies. The night my uncle died, within about 2 hours of his death, I broke through the brickwall of his line, which is also my mother's. I'd been searching for the people for over 30 years, and that night I found several connections to the line and its branches that gave me tons, TONS, of new information. The next day I made a trip to the courthouse in Donaldsonville and found much, much more needed information. It's happened this way for me for my own relatives several times, as well as for other people's lines I've worked on. When a member of their families died, I found goldmines worth of info almost immediately. Who says the dead don't want to be found? Some, yes, but most want their families to know about them - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Alexa - Who Dat fan all the way Genealogy research since 1974 Ancestral hauntings - I ain't afraid-a no ghosts... --- On Thu, 6/21/12, PatFreeman5@aol.com <PatFreeman5@aol.com> wrote: From: PatFreeman5@aol.com <PatFreeman5@aol.com> Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] Fold 3 - Military Records To: laorlean@rootsweb.com Date: Thursday, June 21, 2012, 10:16 AM I am glad that your ancestors whisper to you, I just wish that some of mine would whisper or even YELL. I hate it when I can't find that fact that I need to put with an ancestor. Pat ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.2180 / Virus Database: 2437/5082 - Release Date: 06/20/12 ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.2180 / Virus Database: 2437/5083 - Release Date: 06/21/12

Great story, Cate. I'm not Catholic, but I may need to have a talk with St. Tony.  I have so many lost ancestors I'm beginning to think they were the founders of the witness protection program! ________________________________ From: Cate Schweitzer-Toepfer <voiceofshe@hotmail.com> To: laorlean@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 5:09 PM Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] If you need help... Late night findings They could have been Alsatians and still been German ... just depended on what duke, prince, king, whatever title, won the gang war/border squabble of the week. And after all the Franks were Germans back in the day of Karl Magnus (Charlemagne).  Yes the infighting was that bad and that's why so many came in the mid 1800s.  And where their sympathies lay before arriving in the US influenced the their declared country of allegiance. My half Cajun grandfather's ancestors were reported in family oral history by my grandmother (his wife who was 100% German ancestry and whose father did not want her to "marry that Frenchman from the country") to have come from  from Alsace-Lorraine (maybe a more palatable place to her Pa because he could have had some German ancestry)  and Grandpa Bob spoke Parisian French not "that French from the country".  Not true.  Can trace his mother's Cajun lineage all the way back to the 1500's from France (Provence area) to Acadie to St. Malo in the Grand Derangement in 1755 to NO and on Assumption parish then down the bayou in 1785.  Not even a stop over in Paris. But my real brick wall is with my bayou great g/father whose name was Joseph Jones and whose civil/church records located to date (census, marriage, death) declare him to have been born in KY (in about 1839) with a father named William Jones and mother Elizabeth Duren (as spelled by the French priest at St. Joseph's in Thibodaux on his marriage certificate - but I think it was more likely Dunham or Durham) both born in KY.  Have lots of Wm. Joneses in KY ... some even married to Elizabeths (Elizas, Lizzies, etc), but haven't found the right time slot for his birth.  Europeans kept much better records than in the US the the old days.  I suspect he came down the Mississippi on a keel, flat or raft boat and could only afford a ticket as far as Donaldsonville then was "disembarked" and walked the rest of the way following Bayou Lafourche until someone offered him a job and he met Adelina! Aaaww... thanks Joe and Adelina. On to the other thread about "whispering ancestors" ... this has happened to me so much over the years, I now say a little prayer before doing some especially intent research to ask their and a saint's help.  Carolyn Long will love my spiritual practice.  I pray to St. Anthony, the lost and found saint for you non-Catholics, that goes like this:  "Tony, Tony look around something's (or someone's) lost that must be found" (a prayer taught to me by a coworker from Marksville many, many years ago)  Than I offer him a monetary amount for the poor box (amount usually dependent on how important the intention is or how quickly I'd like a resolution).  He nearly always comes through and I nearly always pay up.  Now I don't mean this in a sacrilegious way.  Just one of my techniques meaningful coincidences rather and blind pigs looking for acorns.    Cate ;-} -----Original Message----- From: Kathy Cochran Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 1:57 PM To: laorlean@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] If you need help... Late night findings I'm curious about what you found AFTER he died, that wasn't available BEFORE he died. Also, some of my brick walls are living people.  A 2nd cousin of mine REFUSES to believe that our Borns came from Germany, and were German throughout all the wars............because my grandmother and her mother had always reported that they were from Alsace-Lorraine.  I have sent her the Declaration of Intent to Emmigrate, and birth docs, etc., but she thinks I am being "disrespectful and dismissive of the family lore."  Nonetheless, it is apparent that since these stories were all passed down in the oral tradition, someone (probably my grandmother) may have been told "Alzey [Hesse-Darmstadt]" and then looked up in the Encyclopedia and found Alsace Lorraine, and erroneously construed that this was the origin of our ancestors.  My cousin's Ancestry tree still shows "no father - no mother" for our g-g grandfather Jacob Born.  Oh well, her loss.  SHE is the brick wall!  I seem to have busted through it! Cheers,  Kathy -----Original Message----- From: laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Alexa Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 8:35 AM To: laorlean@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] If you need help... Late night findings Pat and everyone, If you need help, just give us a holler.  Some ancestors are more difficult to find.  Some lines I can Brees (wink) through in one long sitting while others I've worked on for decades with little luck. As bizarre as it sounds, I've had MAJOR breakthroughs when a family member dies.  The night my uncle died, within about 2 hours of his death, I broke through the brickwall of his line, which is also my mother's.  I'd been searching for the people for over 30 years, and that night I found several connections to the line and its branches that gave me tons, TONS, of new information.  The next day I made a trip to the courthouse in Donaldsonville and found much, much more needed information. It's happened this way for me for my own relatives several times, as well as for other people's lines I've worked on.  When a member of their families died, I found goldmines worth of info almost immediately. Who says the dead don't want to be found?  Some, yes, but most want their families to know about them - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Alexa - Who Dat fan all the way Genealogy research since 1974 Ancestral hauntings - I ain't afraid-a no ghosts... --- On Thu, 6/21/12, PatFreeman5@aol.com <PatFreeman5@aol.com> wrote: From: PatFreeman5@aol.com <PatFreeman5@aol.com> Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] Fold 3 - Military Records To: laorlean@rootsweb.com Date: Thursday, June 21, 2012, 10:16 AM I am glad that your ancestors whisper to you,  I just wish that some  of mine would whisper or even YELL.  I hate it when I can't find that fact that I need to put with an ancestor. Pat ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.2180 / Virus Database: 2437/5082 - Release Date: 06/20/12 ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

I don't live very far from Gettysburg, my gggrandfather was in the battle there, I know exactly where he fought, he survived but I go there as much as I can and always get an eerie feeling there, like maybe he is around, it's an eerie feeling but a good feeling, I have heard people say if they go through the battlefield at night they can hear whispers????? Doris On 6/21/2012 6:09 PM, Cate Schweitzer-Toepfer wrote: > They could have been Alsatians and still been German ... just depended on > what duke, prince, king, whatever title, won the gang war/border squabble of > the week. And after all the Franks were Germans back in the day of Karl > Magnus (Charlemagne). Yes the infighting was that bad and that's why so > many came in the mid 1800s. And where their sympathies lay before arriving > in the US influenced the their declared country of allegiance. > > My half Cajun grandfather's ancestors were reported in family oral history > by my grandmother (his wife who was 100% German ancestry and whose father > did not want her to "marry that Frenchman from the country") to have come > from from Alsace-Lorraine (maybe a more palatable place to her Pa because > he could have had some German ancestry) and Grandpa Bob spoke Parisian > French not "that French from the country". Not true. Can trace his > mother's Cajun lineage all the way back to the 1500's from France (Provence > area) to Acadie to St. Malo in the Grand Derangement in 1755 to NO and on > Assumption parish then down the bayou in 1785. Not even a stop over in > Paris. > > But my real brick wall is with my bayou great g/father whose name was Joseph > Jones and whose civil/church records located to date (census, marriage, > death) declare him to have been born in KY (in about 1839) with a father > named William Jones and mother Elizabeth Duren (as spelled by the French > priest at St. Joseph's in Thibodaux on his marriage certificate - but I > think it was more likely Dunham or Durham) both born in KY. Have lots of > Wm. Joneses in KY ... some even married to Elizabeths (Elizas, Lizzies, > etc), but haven't found the right time slot for his birth. Europeans kept > much better records than in the US the the old days. I suspect he came down > the Mississippi on a keel, flat or raft boat and could only afford a ticket > as far as Donaldsonville then was "disembarked" and walked the rest of the > way following Bayou Lafourche until someone offered him a job and he met > Adelina! Aaaww... thanks Joe and Adelina. > > On to the other thread about "whispering ancestors" ... this has happened to > me so much over the years, I now say a little prayer before doing some > especially intent research to ask their and a saint's help. Carolyn Long > will love my spiritual practice. I pray to St. Anthony, the lost and found > saint for you non-Catholics, that goes like this: "Tony, Tony look around > something's (or someone's) lost that must be found" (a prayer taught to me > by a coworker from Marksville many, many years ago) Than I offer him a > monetary amount for the poor box (amount usually dependent on how important > the intention is or how quickly I'd like a resolution). He nearly always > comes through and I nearly always pay up. Now I don't mean this in a > sacrilegious way. Just one of my techniques meaningful coincidences rather > and blind pigs looking for acorns. Cate ;-} > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Kathy Cochran > Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 1:57 PM > To: laorlean@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] If you need help... Late night findings > > I'm curious about what you found AFTER he died, that wasn't available BEFORE > he died. > > Also, some of my brick walls are living people. A 2nd cousin of mine > REFUSES to believe that our Borns came from Germany, and were German > throughout all the wars............because my grandmother and her mother had > always reported that they were from Alsace-Lorraine. I have sent her the > Declaration of Intent to Emmigrate, and birth docs, etc., but she thinks I > am being "disrespectful and dismissive of the family lore." Nonetheless, it > is apparent that since these stories were all passed down in the oral > tradition, someone (probably my grandmother) may have been told "Alzey > [Hesse-Darmstadt]" and then looked up in the Encyclopedia and found Alsace > Lorraine, and erroneously construed that this was the origin of our > ancestors. My cousin's Ancestry tree still shows "no father - no mother" > for our g-g grandfather Jacob Born. Oh well, her loss. SHE is the brick > wall! I seem to have busted through it! > > Cheers, Kathy > > -----Original Message----- > From: laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:laorlean-bounces@rootsweb.com] > On Behalf Of Alexa > Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 8:35 AM > To: laorlean@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] If you need help... Late night findings > > Pat and everyone, > > If you need help, just give us a holler. Some ancestors are more difficult > to find. Some lines I can Brees (wink) through in one long sitting while > others I've worked on for decades with little luck. > > As bizarre as it sounds, I've had MAJOR breakthroughs when a family member > dies. The night my uncle died, within about 2 hours of his death, I broke > through the brickwall of his line, which is also my mother's. I'd been > searching for the people for over 30 years, and that night I found several > connections to the line and its branches that gave me tons, TONS, of new > information. The next day I made a trip to the courthouse in Donaldsonville > and found much, much more needed information. > > It's happened this way for me for my own relatives several times, as well as > for other people's lines I've worked on. When a member of their families > died, I found goldmines worth of info almost immediately. > > Who says the dead don't want to be found? Some, yes, but most want their > families to know about them - the good, the bad, and the ugly. > > > Alexa - Who Dat fan all the way > Genealogy research since 1974 > > Ancestral hauntings - I ain't afraid-a no ghosts... > > > > --- On Thu, 6/21/12, PatFreeman5@aol.com<PatFreeman5@aol.com> wrote: > > From: PatFreeman5@aol.com<PatFreeman5@aol.com> > Subject: Re: [LAORLEAN] Fold 3 - Military Records > To: laorlean@rootsweb.com > Date: Thursday, June 21, 2012, 10:16 AM > > I am glad that your ancestors whisper to you, I just wish that some of > mine would whisper or even YELL. I hate it when I can't find that fact > that I need to put with an ancestor. > > > Pat > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message > > > ----- > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2012.0.2180 / Virus Database: 2437/5082 - Release Date: 06/20/12 > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >

Does St. Anthony like being called "Tony"?  Maybe so, if your prayers get answered. I just thought of another thing I do to call ancestors, I post their pictures near my workspace.  If I don't have a pic of a particular ancestor, I post one of someone who was close to them or descended from them - a son, daughter, sibling, grandchild, or a spouse, etc.  I find it to be very helpful.  Must be a vibe thing.  Sometimes I ever ask them to "Show me where you were". Alexa --- On Thu, 6/21/12, Cate Schweitzer-Toepfer wrote: On to the other thread about "whispering ancestors" ... this has happened to me so much over the years, I now say a little prayer before doing some especially intent research to ask their and a saint's help.  Carolyn Long will love my spiritual practice.  I pray to St. Anthony, the lost and found saint for you non-Catholics, that goes like this:  "Tony, Tony look around something's (or someone's) lost that must be found" (a prayer taught to me by a coworker from Marksville many, many years ago)  Than I offer him a monetary amount for the poor box (amount usually dependent on how important the intention is or how quickly I'd like a resolution).  He nearly always comes through and I nearly always pay up.  Now I don't mean this in a sacrilegious way.  Just one of my techniques meaningful coincidences rather and blind pigs looking for acorns.    Cate ;-}