I imagine you have heard of the Family, Associates and Neighbors, aka "FAN" which is sometimes an importagnt avenue to work with on your research. The "FAN" will send you messages if you listen to them. In my research story I did just that. Come join me as I present to you my story about my maternal Third Great Grandfather, John Eagan Collins and his family. I had began my genealogy interest with this family about 34 years ago. He was born here in Massachusetts. He was a Irish Catholic, wealthy for those times and from I found became a stong hardworking entrepreneur. He and his wife Mary had many children, however they suffered many losses of many of these children. I will share when I found living cousins, whom shared with me their genealogy research, antidotes and their family loure, and especially  a special piece of family heirloom that was handed down to me by one of these cousins. I will share my new found evidence which bring them them into my world of today. We have more in common with our past relatives than we realized.