I am so thrilled to hear from you! What a wonderful new opening into the Tchir, Thir, Thier spelling mystery! I have a Christmas card from the 1950's to my parents Jack & Helen Hychka that is signed S. Thir! Theodora Thir (as named on her marriage certificate) was my grandmother-said to be secretly Jewish but converted to orthodox Russian curch. Her parents I have listed on Sofron Tchir's S.S. applicaetion as Samuel Tchir and Serafina Adamche. If you don't have copies of these documents, give me your address & I'll mail them to you. Do you have any information regarding the rest of the family? There appears to be a Nicholas Tchir living in Connecticut about the same time as Theodora, (mostly called Dora) but I don't have a connection for him. By the way, I'm Carol Hychka Warburton living in Plano Texas, a Dallas suburb but grew up in Mass. & Connecticut. I would love to hear more from you. Now you have my e-mail address, What a great 4th of July gift! Regards, Carol