Hello, People have been very generous in their remarks about the history articles I'm transcribing from the 1976 Journal-Record newspaper. I greatly appreciate the kind comments and enjoy hearing about the connections you've found. However, since I'm also getting some fairly commonly asked questions, I think it best I give a more complete explanation of what I'm doing. A relative recently gave me this newspaper, knowing I'd be fascinated by the wonderful history it contains. When she gave it to me, I stayed up reading until the wee hours of the morning because I couldn't bear to put it down and go to sleep before I had a good idea of everything it contained. Fortunately, I've been blessed by a family that saves its history and, admittedly, my attic bears testimony to the fact that saver/collector DNA has continued through my generation. :) This newspaper has a low rag content and soon will fall apart. Hence my decision that I didn't want to loose these articles and would transcribe them for myself and other members of my family. I decided to expand that and share them with those of you who are members of these lists. So, once again I need to make clear that I am not the originator of these articles. All credit is due to the Journal-Record newspaper. I don't want anyone to think I'm researching and creating these articles, when 24 years ago they were the hard work of other writers. I'm just transcribing the information for genealogical purposes and take no credit for the content or writing. I'm trying to transcribe them (capitalization and punctuation included) EXACTLY as written. I do make typos but, hopefully, my spell-checker catches the majority of them. I've discovered a few cases where spell-checking has corrected some things I didn't want corrected. For those of you who already have asked and those who may inquire about republishing these articles in genealogy quarterlies, you need to know that I'm not the person to ask for permission. Please contact the newspaper directly. As I've said, all credit goes to them and I'm just transcribing the information for genealogical purposes. Another question has been about pictures the newspaper may contain. Yes, it has some wonderful old pictures, but they don't always relate to the published stories. Obviously people shared whatever old pictures they had for the Bicentennial Edition of this newspaper. I will make an index of them all and transcribe the cutlines so that anyone who would like copies of the pictures will be able to get them from the microfilmed copies of the newspaper which can be found at the Alabama Archives and other repositories. If you have missed some of the articles, they are available through the Rootsweb Archives for the Marion and Fayette Co. AL lists. Also, J. W. Johnson, who maintains the Marion Co. AL GenWeb page, will be posting them there so that future researchers will have access to them. Lastly, most of the people mentioned in these articles are not connected to my family line and, unfortunately, I have no further information about them. At the end of this message you will find the families to which I'm directly connected. I'm happy to try to help people with their research, but unless they ask for family information I've collected I'm frequently unable to be of assistance. I try, but.... For those of you who are hoping to find a family connection in one of these articles, take heart. I've a long way to go in transcribing all of the articles. As time allows, I'll keep plugging away until I'm finished. Hopefully, when I'm done there will be a little something for everyone. Lastly, some of you have shared wonderful tidbits of information after reading these articles. Please consider posting that information to the Fayette and Marion county lists. People will enjoy reading it, and you never know when you'll make another connection to your family! Best regards, Monya Fayette Co. AL list manager MUSGROVE surname list manager THOMPSON surname list manager ASTON surname list manager Researching: ANDERSON, ASTON, BISHOP, DODSON, FYLLINGSNES, GRANT, HARRIS, HOWELL, LESLIE, McDONALD, MILLIGAN, MORTON, MUSGROVE, OWEN, SMOOT, SOUTH, THOMPSON, and WEBSTER.