I read the obituary page, and I bet you do, too. People's stories are intriguing to us family history buffs whether we knew the deceased or not. An obituary in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune brought an unexpected item of interest. I won't publish the name in deference to the family's privacy, but the surname was one shared by my husband's Irish ancestors. Let's say it was "Sullivan," just as an example. Further, let's say "Patrick Sullivan" was one of the siblings of Bill's great-great-grandfather who came to Minnesota during the famine years. You can imagine there were several Patrick Sullivans reflected in censuses in the late 1800s. Which one was a relative? I always thought it might be the sole Patrick Sullivan shown in the 1880 census in Sibley County (again, only an example), but I could never be certain. Imagine seeing an obituary for "Patrick Sullivan" in today's newspaper. I had to read it, of course. According to his obit, this man had farmed the land homesteaded by his Irish ancestors in Sibley County in the 1860s! The name Patrick Sullivan had been passed down for multiple generations, ever since his namesake had arrived from County Wicklow, Ireland! "Our" Sullivans came from County Roscommon. So most likely it was not "our" Patrick Sullivan who settled in Sibley County (MN). In this case, reading today's obituary closed a door, but it might just as well have provided a new research clue for follow-up.