My journey into the land of Genealogy began in 1949 with my Uncle Fred, a gold coin and the story of Rumpelstiltskin. April 1, 1949, about 2 a.m. the telephone in my parents home rang. Back in 1949 not many people had telephones so a phone call at 2 a.m. usually meant bad news, at least for us. Consequently, everyone got out of bed and went to see who my dad was talking to. We all stood around staring at the phone and my dad; who is it, what is the matter, has something bad happened? My dad started laughing and talking to us and the phone at the same: it's Fred, your Uncle Fred, what? you're at Estelle's, when did you get there? and at this point in the phone call, my curiosity and interest in the mysterious 2 a.m. phone call had been resolved; moreover, my 6 year old mischief making abilities had kicked in so I headed to the kitchen to see what I could get into before mom missed me.

The next day we learned that my dad had not seen his brother Fred for more than 20 years. We drove to Aunt Estelle's house to meet Uncle Fred. . .someone I never knew existed and a person my dad believed was dead.

Over the course of the next several weeks I learned a lot about my dad's family and especially, Uncle Fred. Mostly, I stood back and listened and watched the grown-ups as they talked about "the old days" when they put cardboard inside their shoes to cover the holes in the soles. I watched them laugh until tears rolled down their cheeks about this cousin or that cousin and the time Aunt Estelle got the shot gun and chased away a horse thief. All the time these conversations were going on, I was watching Uncle Fred. . .his blue gray eyes so jolly and his smile so like my daddy's, yep I liked him, how did he get to be so brave, to leave his family and home and go. . .go where, and do what? He had so many wonderful stories to tell about gold mining in Alaska and going to the horse races and learning to work on the "high steel" construction jobs because that work earned higher wages.

Uncle Fred had a gold coin, beautiful, bright and shinny. I had never seen a gold coin, in fact, I hadn't had time to see very many coins of any type and if I was fortunate enough to get one for my birthday, mom quickly put it in the bank for the "rainy day". So one day at Uncle Thurman's, when we were all helping him butcher the hogs, I got a chance to own Uncle Fred's gold coin. All I had to do was, like the princess in Rumpelstiltskin, guess Uncle Fred's middle name and of course, that meant beating my big brother and my two older cousins in guessing Uncle Fred's middle name. Of course any time I could ruffle their feathers, well that was going to make the game more interesting. It was so much fun, Uncle Fred would flip that gold coin in the air and say: "if you can guess my middle name, I will make you the proud owner of this shinny gold coin, that actually touched the nose of "Man Of War", the greatest race horse that every fell in love with a little filly". The four of us tried all that day and every chance we got, until Uncle Fred left to go back to Seattle, Washington, to win that gold coin. . .it seemed so simple, he said his middle name started with a "C". And that is the exact moment when the "genealogy bug" caught me. It has taken me 65 years to discover his middle name which I found on his Social Security Application. My husband has nicknamed me "searchervlc" because my quest continues as I search for the other names of the people who came before me and created my genetic code. . .the unique combination of lives that came together to build the genetic code of "The Missing Stones of Hill Top, Charles County, Maryland, the ones who made all that laughter and joy come together on April 1, 1949, and introduced a little girl to her Uncle Fred.