Newbie has issue with Generics

[sirnose1]

I am new to generics and I am currently having an issue getting a method to hold the values in the list. Keeps going to null when it goes to return. I have added the data to the list from the dataset and I can access the values with ItemArray, however uit keeps returning null. I cant find the error. Thnaks in advance. Here is the code. It searches for someon in a profile db snd if it cant finf you there, it will search the Active Directory.

public List<string> user
{
get { return _user; }
set{ _user = value;}
}

public List<string> GetUser(string emailID)
{
//Method to get user from HEAT
string strSQL = "SELECT EmailID, FirstName, LastName, (ParentDepartment +'/' + Department) as Dept ";
strSQL += "FROM dbo.Profile WHERE EMailID = '" + emailID + "'";
SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["HEATMCConnectionString"].ConnectionString);

try
{
con.Open();
SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(strSQL, con);
SqlCommandBuilder cb = new SqlCommandBuilder(da);
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
da.Fill(ds, "Profile");

// Declaration to get array of profile elements
List<string> user = new List<string>();

DataTable dt = ds.Tables["Profile"];
if (dt.Rows.Count < 1)
{
//Search the active directory if user not found in heat
GetUserByActiveDirectory(emailID);
}
else
{
//Gets the elements of the user. Email, first Name, last name and components
emailID = ds.Tables[0].Rows[0].ItemArray[0].ToString();
string firstName = ds.Tables[0].Rows[0].ItemArray[1].ToString();
string lastName = ds.Tables[0].Rows[0].ItemArray[2].ToString();
string component = ds.Tables[0].Rows[0].ItemArray[3].ToString();

//make list
user.Add(emailID);
user.Add(firstName);
user.Add(lastName);
user.Add(component);
}
return user;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw ex;
}
finally
{
con.Close();
}
}