Dear Fellow Oakland County researchers: I would like to publicly thank Christie Trapp for posting information about the archived newspapers of Oakland County, particularly the Lake Orion Weekly (http://www.orion.lib.mi.us/idigorion/). For eight years, I have been searching for information that would tell me what happened to my great-grandfather Howard Merkel York. He had married my great-grandmother Mary Jane Barber in 1924 and had two children: my paternal grandmother and her younger brother. Howard and Mary Jane divorced in 1927; Mary Jane got custody of the children, and Howard was supposed to pay child support for each child until they attained the age of 16. Apparently Howard didn't care for that, and felt Mary Jane was not caring for the children properly, so he kidnapped his children from their mother in Lapeer, and placed them in Blodgett Children's Home in Grand Rapids. Both my grandmother and her brother were adopted by two distantly related families in the same small west Michigan town. They knew they were siblings and remained close until grandmother's brother passed away in 1962 at the young age of 37. Grandmother had some information on her birth parents, and had tried to do some searching, but what little she discovered turned her off on attempting to find and contact anyone (she did discover that Howard spent some time in prison). She remained fairly closemouthed about what little she knew. In 1995, I began my first genealogical research by attempting to find Grandmother's birth family (ambitious goals for a newbie, to be sure!). I knew when and where Grandmother had been born (Genesee Co.), so I contacted the Flint Genealogical Society and got a copy of her parents' marriage record. I was able to use the information to start my family tree. I was able to find quite a bit of information on the York family line, using vital and census records rented at my local Family History Center (this was before I owned a computer). There was a person listed on the marriage record as a witness, whom I figured must be Mary Jane's brother. I found him listed in the Social Security Death Index at the FHC, but didn't know what to do with that info, as he had died in 1983. One day, in 1997, I had an epiphany, and called information to ask for the phone number of this man in the town where he had last resided, according to the SSDI. I figured I might get a widow or a son with the same name. There was a phone number, and when I dialed it, the person who answered the phone was his widow, an aunt by marriage to Grandmother. She was able to fill in much of the Barber side of the family, including the fact that Mary Jane Barber, my great-grandmother, had died in 1975, and was buried in Stiles Cemetery in Lapeer. Even though Grandmother was reunited with her mother's family 70 years after her kidnapping, I was still hunting for information that would tell me what happened to Howard York. Through various resources and distant York relatives I met online, I knew that he had been born in September 1898, been to prison, and lived with his father and stepmother, James and Mary (Bogert) York in Lake Orion. When Christie posted the website for the Lake Orion news, I thought I would search for his stepmother...perhaps find her obituary which might mention Howard and his whereabouts. I first searched under "James York" even though he had passed away in 1933, because I knew I would find the stepmother listed as "Mrs. James York". I did find info, but not much that was helpful. Then when I searched under "Mary York", lo and behold, I found an obituary for Howard York (30 November 1945), with his stepmother listed as a survivor! It was one of those jumping-up-and-down moments, similar to what happened in 1997 when I found Grandmother's aunt! In addition, I discovered Howard had been buried in the same cemetery (Stiles) as his former wife, Mary Jane Barber. He also had remarried and had two small sons. The name of one son was familiar, as I had seen it on the "Michigan Vital Records: Deaths 1971 - 1996" database at Ancestry. But there remains a hope that the younger son is still alive, and may be interested in meeting his older half-sister. (Of course, this situation must be handled carefully and discreetly). I can't thank Christie enough for what she did, and I thought we all could use a success story to read...sometimes those brick walls are so discouraging! Happy Hunting to all! Miriam (Robbins) Midkiff Spokane, Washington My Website: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~kidmiff My Database: http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~kidmiff ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!