Hello all, This is long, but I want to share with all of you a success story six years in the making. My Grandmother, Martha KUDRON GALUS, immigrated to the Krakow area near Genoa, Nance County, Nebraska, with her parents and siblings in 1906-8. Her youngest brother John W. KUDRON was born in Genoa in April 1909. The family story goes that John married Zelpha - they were both very young. They subsequently left Nebraska and information about them was pretty sparse. Six years ago, I began computerizing the genealogy information my Mother and I had on our families. I asked for more information about granduncle John, but no one knew much about him. One of my aunts said she thought he was in Idaho for a while. A search on the online Social Security Death Index (http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi) revealed there was a John KUDRON whose SSN was issued in the state of Idaho, date of death was May 1961 - no last residence or last benefit was noted. There was a Zelpha KUDRON whose SSN was issued in Washington state, her last residence was shown as Salinas, Monterey, California, date of death 20 Jun 1988. I sent for copies of the SSN applications for both John and Zelpha. Information on these forms confirmed this John KUDRON was my grandmother's youngest brother and his wife Zelpha (born in Dunning, Blaine County, Nebraska). I checked the California death index for more information about Zelpha. I posted a query on the Monterey message board, asking if anyone could locate an obituary for Zelpha in the hope there might be something about John KUDRON. Within a couple of days I received a reply - the obit named a surviving son. I couldn't find a listing for the son in any online white pages. The guy who sent the obit had also checked the phone directory for Salinas and found the number for the son was unlisted. In late 1999 I posted the SSN application information and Zelpha's obituary to a "Post-em" on the SSDI and then put John and Zelpha aside for a while. I've added information to my KUDRON file over the years, always keeping in mind the loose ends for John and Zelpha. A month ago I once again began focusing my genealogy efforts on my KUDRON family. For some reason I went out to the SSDI again, and I noticed that Zelpha KUDRON's entry had two Post-ems. I clicked on the Post-ems and saw that just a few days earlier someone had posted a message saying that Zelpha was his grandmother. The Post-em requires an e-mail address. Needless to say, I wrote to this fellow - my second cousin. He forwarded my e-mail on to his father, who wrote to me a few days later. There was apparently a separation between John and Zelpha and information about John is still a little sparse - however, John's son did tell me that his father was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Reno, Nevada. There is only one Catholic cemetery in Reno, and a phone call confirmed that my John William KUDRON is indeed buried there. This evening I received a copy of John's obituary, after posting a query to the Washoe County Nevada message board a few days ago. Moral of the story is - don't give up! Post your information and questions in as many places as you can - message boards, surname registries, etc. Go to the SSDI and put a brief post-em on your ancestors' entry. I firmly believe that the spirits of our ancestors are out there. They want to be found. I went back to look at Zelpha's SSDI listing just days after her grandson wrote his post-em after mine.... Coincidence? I don't think so. Peace, -- Marge Galus Sandlier <>< m-sandlier@cox.net We live as long as we are remembered. --Old Russian Proverb Forget Me Not - http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sandlier/ -- My Photos http://community.webshots.com/user/msandlier