Wow! I loved reading this, it is really like a fascinating book. I love this site, you can find ANYTHING! here. One observation I had in regards to the locket engravings. The letters G.F.A and F.C are in the same block style (font) and the T.F are in a totally different more romantic one. I would think that is to create a easily read visual of the "wording" on the back. The message seems to me to say G.F.A (a person) T.F (together forever) F.A (the other person) and the date of 1911 for a wedding. Are you certain Alice never married? You should look to see whether those initials match anyone else in your family. Just a thought, are you sure the soldier in the picture was really Aunt Alice's fiance? or could her story have gotten mixed up with someone elses. A story of a fiance killed in the war and a picture of a scotish soldier could have easily gotten assumed over the years. Also it is possible that the locket belonged first to Alice's mother and had her husbands pic in it (Alice's father) and that is her wearing it in the photo, because it was hers. And when she died, if that is Alice in the picture(as a child) she inherited the locket and added the picture of her deceased love and the date at a later time? Of course the locket could have belonged to someone else entirely and aunt Alices fiance placed into it by her when she wore it at a later time. Checking out those initials would be my first step. Finding out the dates of family weddings and who died before who would be my second. You said Alice had other sisters, could it be one of their wedding dates? did a sister die before Alice and that is how she inherited the locket? perhaps the other man in the locket is not a father since he seems too young for the age of the photo but a sister's husband (original owner of the locket)and Alice simply left the pic in there since his picture is the one that goes with the engraving and added her own dead love? To Identify the lockets original owner I would go with what I know and get the names of all parties to try to match up those initials with someone in the family. PLEASE keep us posted and good luck!

I think you should just try to pay the guy the entire amount if at all possible. He is being very nice by taking the lower bid and he will probably lose the use of his car for a few days while its in the shop being fixed. If he wanted to, he could probably ask you to cover the charge of a rental car for his use during this time. I would consider myself lucky that he isn't doing that and just pay him if you can.

I have a World Deluxe membership at Ancestry.com. You can send an e-mail to me through my page here (be sure to put KT in the subject line); and give me whatever info you have (name, birth and death dates/places, parents' names, etc.), and I'll do searches and let you know what I find.

Rootsweb is one I have had some luck with: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ When I started searching on the web for sites, I also thought the word was geneology, but apparently it is spelled with an "a" -- genealogy. It is interesting to do family research, and you can learn some history. I found out that one great, great, great grandfather was on friendly terms with Benedict Arnold. Didn't expect that. I also found that some of my ancestors came from Holland, which I had not known. Hope your search is fruitful!