Cyndie Gibson, mayor of Prospect, and daughters Chloe, left, and Savannah, have the lucky knack of finding and collecting four-leaf clovers. Cyndie says the talent has been passed on by her 93-year-old grandfather, John Crede, who has found hundreds in his lifetime.

For someone who isn't Irish, Cyndie Gibson has inherited a bit of Irish luck.

The luck has come via hundreds of four-leaf clovers. The inheritance: a knack for finding them.

The talent is passed on by her grandfather, 93-year-old John Crede, who lives in the St. Barnabas Retirement Village in Gibsonia.

"Last year, I found 51," said Gibson, who is also the mayor of Prospect. "In my whole lifetime, I have found hundreds. I've been doing this since I was a child."

Oddly, Gibson's daughters, 11-year-old Savannah and 10-year-old Chloe, have both begun to find the anomalous clovers, too.

"I found seven this year," Savannah attested. Her sister, so far, has only found three. But that is three more than many folks who hope to find the symbol of luck.

"I have looked in the same place you have, and I haven't found anything," noted Gibson's brother-in-law, Patrick Gibson, visiting recently from Maryland.

Cyndie Gibson and Crede both say the shamrocks are found without being specifically sought.

"I don't have to leaf through them or be on my hands and knees. ... I just look down and there they are," Crede said. "I don't go out with the idea that I'm going to find a four-leaf clover."

Crede said although he wears glasses for distance as well as reading, the clovers are found without his eyewear.

"I find seven or eight in the morning when I go out for a walk," he said, adding grass should be left 3 inches high to maintain clover leaves.

According to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, there are an estimated 10,000 three-leaf clovers for every four-leaf clover.

St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, allegedly used clover to illustrate the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

Legend also says respective leaves of white clover, or Trifolium repens, in the pea family Fabaceae, represent hope, love and faith — with a fourth representing luck.

When asked if they felt lucky, Gibson shrugged. "I think so. I have my moments, put it that way."

"I don't really know," Crede said. "There has to be some luck to it, I would think."

Lucky or not, Butler County's clover finders are outranked by another Pennsylvania resident: George Kaminski, an inmate at the Laurel Highlands state regional correctional facility in Somerset.

Kaminski holds the world record for collecting 72,927 four-leaf clovers since 1995.