One of my major brick walls came tumbling down today and I wanted to share my news! I encourage you all to keep trying. It took me 3-4 years to find this, but I did find it, and it was worth the wait! Let me introduce you to my long lost great great grandmother, Margaret Bahen (BACON?) Kane: The Athens Gazette Athens, PA August 10, 1899 Died KANE - Margaret K. Kane died early Thursday morning, August 3d, at the home of her son, John Kane, of Waverly, with whom she had resided for some time. Mrs. Kane had been a resident of Waverly for the past thirty-five years, her husband, Simon Kane, having died the year after they came there. She was a faithful communicant at St. James church, and was well known in Waverly. She had been troubled for some time with heart difficulty and other troubles due to her advancing years. She leaves two sons, Michael, of Elmira, and John, of Waverly. A brother, Michael Bacon, of Friendsville, Pa., is also living. The funeral services were held from St. James church Friday morning at nine o'clock, and the interment was in St. James cemetery. I have a whole new set of questions and research to do, but I can't tell you how excited I am!!! Ellen Kane Buglewicz Papillion, NE

Glad for Ellen's DILEMMA (not brick wall, please) being solved. I do hate it so when people use the "brick wall" phrase..since I have BRICK as one of my surname lines , one can only imagine how many messages that genealogy -postings bring up, computers being what they are. Jeannette

I emailed the Tioga County Historical Society today regarding early assessment records and they refered me to the County Clerk's Office which refered me to Records and Archives in the basement of the County Clerk's Office. They have assessment records on microfilm back to 1860, but nothing earlier. Does anyone have any idea where the earlier assessments might be? Assessment records in Bradford and Tioga Counties, Pennsylvania go back to the creation of each county and they are a gold mine for reserach because we can learn when an ancestor first came to the area, when they left, what kind of property they had, parents who could not pay for their children's schooling (schooling was by subscription until the 1830's) were listed along with the children and their ages and so much more. J. Kelsey Jones montrose@npacc.net