I had an incident happen via a contact made on one of the other genealogy lists and am wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. I have a great-great grandmother whose maiden name I just discovered in May when I happened upon her tombstone in the cemetery where her son was buried (we know via cemetery records that he paid for the plots, and their surname isn't a common one). So, I have been researching this particular surname and find that in the county where she was born in 1801, there was only one family with the same surname in the 1790 census. And, although this doesn't prove anything, it does make it the most likely candidate. Well, I connected with a descendant of this family who seemed quite possessive of this family and was unwilling to share information as I hadn't actually been able to prove who her father was. The info he had didn't list a daughter by that name, but of course we all know that female relatives sometimes fell through the cracks as far as record keeping goes. He seemed incredulous to think I was a descendant of this family as well. How is it so difficult to think that when this family must have literally thousands of descendants today (there were 10 children). Does anyone have any idea of how to cope with someone with this attitude? How do I convince him that we are probably related so he will feel free to share what data he has? Thanks for listening. ~Maudeen Maudeen@bainbridge.net Book Reviewer -www.Amazon.com Genealogy surnames: WEATHERLY, INMAN, NEELING, CAMERON, SWIFT, CHASE, HAUSER, ARNEY, ROARK, BLAIR, CRAWFORD, PURCELL, HAZLETT, MILLIGAN, STAHL, SCHULZ, HENDERSHOT, OLMSTEAD, SPEAR, COLE, LEE, STUCKEY, FAY, THOMAS, CROSS Locations: Guilford Co, NC, Owen Co., IN, Marshall Co., IA, Medina Co., OH, Kossuth Co., IA, Cecil Co., MD, Chester CO., PA Washington Co., PA, Clayton Co., IA, Warren Co., NJ, Luzerne Co., PA