thanks to those that gave me some tips on how to find this story,thought I had saved it but I can't find it~ I have just recieved a letter from an unknown cousin that I had just discoverd and written to~ she said she remembered hearing as a child that our ances. one Duke O'NEILL, was promised land in America and that all he had to do was touch the land he saw, and so as the ship pulled in he cut off his hand and threw it on the American shore< I want to be able to her the proper story behind that legend and explain the red hand as being older than anyone coming to America~funny how people take on a story as their own huh? wish she could tell me where in Ireland they came from,that is my quest! ALICE >*;*<