Okay, Jonathan, now that I have vented my spleen, I will play nicely again. :) Regarding imprinting, here's how I see it... and others are welcome to disagree. Goslings have an instinctive tendency to attach themselves to the first creature(s) they see. In ideal circumstances, this is good old momma goose. They follow her and look to her for protection, guidance etc. She teaches them and if they get out of line, she corrects them - very firmly. One of the things the parent geese seem to teach their young is that humans should be kept at a little distance. "They may be nice creatures, little goslings, but they are NOT GEESE." :) Incubator goslings, or goslings removed from their parent just after hatching, have no mother goose to imprint on. Instead they have this human who feeds, waters, protects etc. So they attach themselves to this human. If the human responds by treating a gosling with all the handling and affection that one would accord to a puppy or kitten, the gosling grows up with no natural boundaries between it and the human. Some people feel such a goose lacks respect for humans. I'm not sure this is exactly the right word... but it's close. It certainly lacks inhibitions regarding its behaviour toward the human. When breeding season rolls around, along about the following February, the geese - and particularly the ganders - are suddenly flooded with hormonal urges. If the gander lacks the inhibitions that would normally keep him at a safe distance from human "intruders" he MAY vent his over-protectiveness and possessiveness of his lady by attacking the very humans who nurtured him -- or any others that venture too near. A goose-raised gander may normally hiss and snake his neck to warn people to keep away while he and his lady raise their young, but a hand-raised gander is more likely to go further than that, and bite and/or flog the human with his wings. It hurts plenty... and if this happened to a small child, serious damage could be done. This being said, goose behaviour even during the breeding season is influenced by the underlying disposition of the individual bird. And this inborn disposition MAY be affected by genetics. Hence one breed gets good reviews (particularly Pilgrims and American Buffs) whereas certain others (particularly the Asian breeds which are not descended from the European greylag) have a reputation for aggressiveness. Certain breeds, and the Pilgrim is one of them, have been selectively bred for good dispositions, making it less likely that they will be aggressive as they mature. In addition to this, Pilgrims are auto-sexing and even a beginner can tell the males from the females at a glance. This makes it much easier to be more reserved in one's handling of the ganders in particular. Last year, when I added a pair of Pilgrim goslings to the mixed breed family my two geese were raising, I took pains not to handfeed or pet the gander gosling. He was naturally reserved and I encouraged him to stay that way. I think the only time we picked him up or even touched him was once when we saw blood on his feathers and needed to check the extent of the injury. The female gosling was more friendly and when we had the geese out in the pasture for extra grazing she soon followed her foster mother's example and learned to take dandelion greens from my hand. I don't do this a lot with her; but Willow, (my first Pilgrim who was of necessity hand-raised) comes looking for attention from time to time. She is a sweetheart even during breeding season and Elsie follows her example. I do believe that one has more leeway with female geese than one has with ganders, but even Willow does not appreciate me handling her goslings when they are small. (And I respect this, except when necessary to return a gosling that has squeezed under the fence or otherwise needs rescuing. Even then Willow can be quite huffy about it... but not aggressive.) Get me talking about my geese and I can go on and on... but I think that is enough to add at the moment. Please understand that these are subjective observations from a person who has just over two years experience with geese and that the sample of geese I have worked with has been a mere dozen. What I am doing with my geese now is working well for me and for the geese. They are friendly, but not lap geese. They are always glad to see us and give us a loud, joyous welcome; they know their names and will come when called (if they feel like it). Willow, with her winning ways and extremely sweet nature, is ALMOST a pet. The other two are not. But all of them enrich our lives, make us smile or shake our heads at their antics, and are altogether very satisfactory creatures to have about the place.

My maternal GGrandfather came here in the 1880's from England. My grandmother was very into family, and talked about her parents background. I found his name on a ship's manifest, and that led to naturalization info, etc. and census docs. My father's family came before the Revolution, and was easier to trace. I had the pleasure of meeting his grandmother when I was a child. I gleaned a lot of info from them. I used all that info, and went to a Family History center, run by the LDS, and spent a lot of time going through microfilms for docs. Got a lot of info, and then went to cemeteries and state counties to go through books and film records of births, deaths and property purchases. Then came the internet, and I could look up that info from home, and exchange info with my new extended family. I have been a member of Ancestry since almost the beginning.

I did a search for Minnie L. Prentiss. Could you give me some more information please. Just e-mail me and I will tell you what info I need to do the search on Ancestry.com.

Thank you all for the many responses! I was out all yesterday, but didn’t make it to the library. I thought I'd get there today, but the weather is keeping me home. Adellabedella, they had children, and I was able to track the two sons. But the other five were all girls. Thanks so much for the Chronicling America link. I used that a lot years ago, but had lost the bookmark in a computer change. I love that site, even if I’m not looking for anything specific. Those newspapers have numerous references to my grandparents, opera singers who performed all over the country. Rusty, it’s true that the Ellis Island site starts a year later than what I was looking for, but it’s a great site and I’m glad to know about it—thanks! I discovered FamilySearch recently, which is where I found the Census reports. I remember years ago not many of these were available. Lindsey, I'm always interested in the knowledge you share. I had no clue about Italian and German names. Seniorgal, our local Historical Society has a nice genealogy section, but all my family came from NYC. I'm sure the city has excellent resources, but it's a little vast. (That must be an oxymoron.) lol I haven't lived there in years. As some of you know, I’m a volunteer gravestone photographer for FindAGrave. Yesterday I happened upon FAG memorial pages for two of my children’s ancestors, and asked that management of the pages be transferred to me. I was happy to send the links to my kids and granddaughter. It’s funny that my 26-year-old granddaughter has a strong interest in family history that I thought she wouldn’t develop until much later. Thanks again!