| AL || AR || GA || IL || IN || KY || LA || MD || MO || MS || NC || OH || SC || TN || TX || VA |

Hunting For Bears began in 1951 as a newspaper genealogy column in several newspapers owned by Nicholas R. & Dorothy L. Murray in southeast Louisiana. They both were avid genealogists and are responsibile for the formation of over 2/3 of the genealogy societies in Louisiana and about half of those in Mississippi. Nicholas loved puns, the name and logo combine to form one about hunting for your forebears (ancestors).

In the 60s these two seniors began the tremondous undertaking of gathering early marriage records, indexing them, and providing searches to locate the county or, in the case of Louisiana, parish licensing the marriage. Mississippi, Louisiana and North Carolina were the first states in which records were collected.

At first it was a free service for society members, an inducement to join and participate in genealogical activites. The scope of the endevor expanded to other states where personal contact with volunteers to gather data did not exist, the society had to hire researchers. A charge of $1 per search was instituted to help cover expenses along with publishing of the county index books to generate revenue. Costs have gone up since then but H.F.B. has maintained the 1970 price structure. Current prices are listed on the web site.

Nick and Dorothy's son David became involved in the 1980s. He owned a print shop in Utah. He and his wife, Dixie, now continue the operation from Salt Lake City. All seven of David's children have at some time or other have contributed greatly to the growth of Hunting For Bears. After David's injury in the Gulf War, Dixie became the chief bear hunter.