Going into my ninth year tracing my ancestors, I received a 
devastating series of disappointments, some of which you readers were
made aware of, some more of which are published in this issue. (See
Vol. 3, page 161.) But disappointments cannot last forever. Some 
day they will dry up. Then the successes come rippling through. In
the meantime, I had a proxy success, so to speak, helping others find
their "lost ancestors" or "missing ancestral links." My own lineage
presents a block at every turn in the road - if, indeed, a road it 
can rightly be called! Sometimes I think the semblance of a lineage
is all in my imagination, and I wonder if others can see the findings
with the same clarity! Some of the items are so absolutely disjointed
from any true connexion with the others that I almost feel ashamed
to tack them up into a pedigree chart. I do not often show my own 
pedigree charts to others in the profession. They look rather empty
and off balance, filled up all over with the inevitable question sign.

    But wait, all of this discouraging talk may dismay you eager
researchers! I always say, 'Nobody can possibly have the knotty family
history I have!' And it seems to be true. I can untie the knots in the
lineage of others, most of the time, because I have my "fingers in 
shape" from working on my own!

    The "new adventure" signified by our opening title for 1968, is
also an interesting one. Really, it is not exactly "new" to me. But
let me explain further. I recently began a concerted campaign of ad-
vertising my genealogical problems in Irish newspapers. Though I had
done this, with other lines, here in American newspapers, the "new"
part came with the publication of Hollingsworth and allied problems,
in newspapers in "the old sod." Irish papers are newsier and folksier
than many of ours, in my opinion. People read them more thoroughly
too, because they aren't filled to the brim with political ballyhoo
and moral weakness. I published my first ad, costing less than five 
dollars American money, in "The Guardian," a County Wexford publica-
tion. I asked about the origin of our Hollingsworths there. Only
two answers came. (I plan to advertise again shortly.) But the second
was from a cousin of mine. My records, most of which are published
in the REGISTER, notably in Vol. 1, No. 2, July, 1965, fitted like
a hand in a glove with the information she has sent to me in two letters.
I am publishing her first letter here, in full. May you, if you are
'in the dumps' about your genealogical slumps, find a fresh breath of 
determination by reading it. I surely did!

                                                  3rd Feb. 1968
                                                  12 Main Street
    Dear Mr. Hollingsworth,                       Gorey, Co. Wexford
    A friend of mine has passed in a cutting out of the Guardian
which I am sending you just a few details about the Hollingsworths.
My Grandmother was a Hollingsworth from Ballinakill.

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