I would like to extend an acknowledgment and thank you for the contributions of my Uncle and current President of the Boone County Genealogical Society, Bob Plants. He has been a tremendous resource to many people in Boone and Logan Counties tracing their family trees. He is also a masterful 'storyteller' of the many families who have lived in this area for many years. He has amazing recall and ability to put together the individuals and families. He has spent hours carefully preserving and sharing documents from court, newspaper and land records in the two counties to help verify information. He is also an active volunteer and organizer of the Coal Museum in Madison which is dedicated to preserving the stories and history of people and coal. As an ex-miner and collector of 'history' he gives a wonderful tour of the role of coal and the life of miners. He has even helped me to find Elkins males willing to have DNA tested so that we can help in identifying the ancestry of Daniel Patterson Elkins, and traced for more information about my Great Uncle who was involved in the Battle of Blair Mountain. I have heard him describe several stories of people coming to him with little more than a picture of a parent or unknown grandparent, and he has successfully helped them to 'find their roots.' I know he works closely with Lenore Ferrell. He was also awarded a History Hero award in 2003 by the WVA Division of Culture and History. On a recent visit, he was able to help me to 'map' what we know about Daniel Patterson Elkins (who lived with Andrew Workman in the 1850 census) based on documents that exist about his life. I will be posting that information as I can. He has also been instrumental in helping with other Elkins, Plants, Price, Cooper, Morris, Meadows, Nelson and Stone ancestors. His stories on our early ancestors and descriptions of life as it was years ago should be recorded and preserved. He truly makes them come to life. It's a pretty amazing thing to share breakfast with him at a local McDonalds in Madison and have him identify almost every person who walks in as a customer-- and how they are related to us. (and share some truly wonderful 'mountain stories' about their families - warts and all). Thanks for this opportunity to recognize his contributions to our history. He is truly a history hero and a great resource if you are in the area. Debbie Deem ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com