Vlad,

>Finaly, try
>oTest1.name = 'node123'
>gather name otest1
>
>Now otest1.children = .NULL., and otest2 gone from memory!!! Looks like bug with object references...

I do not see this behavior. After your two statements, oTest1.children is still an object reference to oTest2 and oTest2 is still intact. Your results are consistent with what would happen if you 'release oTest2'. Any chance that happened? (VFP6/SP3)