Ruth and list, Just to add to your puzzle... I am originally from the Ticonderoga area and I can remember my grandmother telling me not to play in the front of the house, we lived way out in the country on a main road, because the Gypsies who traveled the road stole children. There was also a man in the village whose first name was Gyp and that was because the Gypsies left him. Now this man lived right acrosss the street from where my grandmother grew up in the 1870's and 80's. Old wives tales and gossip, yes but like most folk tales and legends there is usually somewhere a true basis for them even if based on misunderstanding. Rolland Miner Director NWDB Survey 2000 http://nwdb2000.homestead.com/home.html [log in to unmask] e-list: [log in to unmask]