A stormy night is the traditional time for story-telling, so.... As some of you know, I've been collecting information on anyone I can place in Luther Township, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Territory [1891-1907]. What few know, however, is that this project can be traced back to a friendship forged in pioneer days -- including nights taking shelter from tornados in my Ggrandfather's dugout.... I spent a great deal of time with my Ggrandfather [O.M. COLE] when I was growing up, and learned genealogy through a game he devised. By the time I entered the first grade, I understood that one of my classmates was a second half-cousin, once-removed, while another was a third cousin, once-removed -- and exactly how some others were related by marriage. So that was the beginning of my interest in genealogy, but he also told me stories about folks who were friends and neighbors in the early days. Luther Township was settled by black & white homesteaders in almost equal numbers. It was relatively isolated, and the way my Ggrandfather described those days, "your neighbor's character was a lot more important than the color of his skin." When my mother and I started this project a few years ago, we agreed that there was no point in doing it at all unless it included both black & white pioneers. So I called a descendant of one of my Ggrandfather's neighbors to see what she thought of the project. Probably hadn't seen her more than a couple of times since I moved away from Luther over 30 years ago, so I started out by telling her what I remembered of my Ggrandfather's tales about her family and asking to be corrected. For example: her father was the first lawyer in Luther, not just the first black lawyer. Right. And because he was the only lawyer for some time, he had both black & white clients. She laughed when I got to the story about taking shelter from tornados in my Ggrandfather's dugout -- because she'd heard it many times but didn't realize it had been handed down in our family, too. Maybe that helps explain why the families have been friends for several generations. Anyway, she's retired after teaching in the Luther school system for many years, and my mother is retired after serving as the postmaster there for over 30 years. So if your family lived in Luther in the past 60 years, chances are at least one of these ladies will remember them -- and may even be able to put you in touch with shirttail kin still living there. The catch is that neither of them are on line. That's why I keep asking anyone whose looking for ancestors in the Luther area to write to me. See? It may take a century, but some good can come out of even tornados..... Sharon McAllister 73372.1745@compuserve.com