Hello Listers! After eight or nine years of digging, I have almost all of my father's ansestors back to the colonies or earlier. Alas! Not so with my mother's people! I am stuck on dead center! Mother's father was George Jones COOK, 1852-1926. Supposedly born in Philadelphia, he spent most of his adult life in Pittsburgh where he worked as a conductor for the Pennsylvania Railroad and raised nine of thirteen children with his wife, Harriet Ann REED, 1864-1945. Her father was Samuel A. REED, and his wife, Julian, was the daughter of William RUTTER, of Newcastle, PA. Please tell me someone else is tracing one or more of these secretive, shadowy families, and that you have some leads or something to share with me. I am most willing to pay for any results. Charles Clague Oak Harbor, WA