The first really cold snap of the year has just arrived, the brilliant colors of fall leaves dance about us everywhere, and it is impossible to avoid thoughts of the big family dinner just around the corner.

Whether you are the master chef, the master eater, or the most important master dishwasher, your contribution to the family gathering has special significance. Just being there, surrounded by all your kith and kin, is a treasure beyond compare.

This week the listowner for one of the Mississippi County Rootsweb sites posed a question to that group &8230; if you could have one of your ancestors join you for Thanksgiving dinner, who would it be and why?

Respondents were invited to tell all they could about their honored ancestors and their histories. The stories that are pouring out are thoughtful, touching and very entertaining.

What a wonderful idea. What an opportunity to share family time with a great-great-grandparent long lost to the family group.

Many of the stories also include questions the hosts would like to have answered by their ancestors. Such a typical response from a family researcher &8212; always with the questions.

But many of us will be sharing the holiday with more immediate ancestors and will forget that we are holding the golden opportunity to ask those questions right now. This is the perfect time to truly &8216;visit&8217; with your relatives and to record their tales for generations to come. You can make that fantasy ancestor interview a reality for some other family member yet to come.

Gather round the fire with the coffee and pumpkin pie, take out the pen and paper, the old recorder, the camera or better yet the video camera. Capture the smiles and laughter along with the stories of past holidays and what a treasure you will have created.

Pull out that box of old photographs and let family members help identify those folks in the pictures. There is no better way to start the flow of stories than to produce photos of the good old days.

Talk about your brickwalls or questions that you have developed over the year. You may be shocked to find that the answers &8212; or good clues to them &8212; are right there among your family members and we simply never asked.

Talk about the holidays past. What were the Thanksgiving traditions in your family then? Do any of them survive? Do you share the same recipes your great grandmother served? Do you even attend the same church services? Or is it a tradition of football and sport that drives the family spirit? Perhaps even a Christmas parade tradition that gets the little ones out of bed early of Thanksgiving Day.

May the warm glow of the holidays be with you and the rest of your family for generations to come and may you use this holiday to truly SHARE your heritage.Happy Thanksgiving &8230; and Happy Ancestor Hunting!

DOES ANYONE KNOW &8230;

&8230; Mark Middleton (P.O. Box 412, Magham, LA.71259; 318-728-2859;

TIORUOK@aol.com

) is seeking any information on his ELLIOT & MIDDLETON lines. WILLIAM MIDDLETON married MARY ELLIOTT 28 April 1828 in Amite County, MS. They had several children but moved to Caldwell Parish, LA., around 1840 when he posted a property bond for a friend and lost it when the friend fled. Does any reader have information about this couple and their descendants?

&8230; Faye Johnston (

EDparcel@aol.com

) is researching her PARKERSON line and would like to contact a SUSAN AIKEN who shares the same line. Aiken was living in Carthage, MS., with her husband, Brooks Lynch and baby Preston Aiken Lynch but Ms Johnston has not been able to locate them. Is any reader working on a Parkerson line or have information to share?

Please send your announcements and queries to FAMILY TREES, 900 Main St., Natchez, MS 39120 or e-mail

FAMTREE316@aol.com

. All queries are printed free of charge. We look forward to hearing from you.