Hi, Sure no problem in explaining where you find mailing lists and message boards. Using the home page URL for rootsweb.com of: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ (REMEMBER: ancestry bought rootsweb.com so now they have incorporated ancestry in the addresses for extra head count.. they get paid for advertisements by head count.) At the top of the page you will see a tool/links bar, in it are the links to the lists and boards. for Lists: http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ next window it goes to... I personally prefer the link in this box: (by clicking here) Looking for the old Mailing Lists home page? You can still find it by selecting "Browse mailing lists" under the "Find a mailing list" search box or by clicking here. takes you to: http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/index.html now locate what mailing list you want to join/search the archives of that list for the data your looking for and you may or may not need to join it. For Message boards: (link takes you to) http://boards.rootsweb.com/?o_iid=33216&o_lid=33216 This is a little different then the steps to the lists. Scroll down the page to the topic you want: Surnames Localities Categories Topics Categories then click on your subject: For Germany you would pick "more localities", then "central Europe": then "Germany". Then the specific area. NOTE IMPORTANT TO BOARDS: We Message board administrators must remove a message containing any copyrighted data , or mentioning sales, or money. Also we will move a message that is posted in the wrong area. Lets say your message is for a town not located in the listings .. do not put it in the ones listed just for coverage we will remove it. put it in general, that covers all of Germany. Rules governing the message boards is much stricter then the mailing lists. ~~~~~~~~~~ now don't forget not everyone uses those boards and lists connected to rootsweb. Try genforum.genealogy, try searching Yahoo groups. "Post everywhere." NOTE IMPORTANT: when first starting out it is easy to post to places and forget you posted there so make notes of where you post. It is much better if you create a free email account, gmail, yahoo, hotmail... anything - those postings and those archives will be there long after your gone to dust... or I should say after you changed your ISP, so now you lost the contacts.. I still get contacts from postings back in 1998 when I first started using my hotmail address. hope that helps Nelda Nelda http://freepages.folklore.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bonsteinandgilpin/

Thank you, Nelda. Your links will make the message boards much more convenient to find. Bill Smith descendant of Daniel Engelcke, Brunswick, Ehrenkrook Division, Von Specht Regiment