Enough of this thread please before it gets out of hand. Rootsweb genealogy mailing lists ARE for the discussion of Genealogy AND family history and are not restricted to any date limits. It is extremely important to get all of the family history facts from the documents and oral history of living relatives and recent past events before beginning to research our own genealogy any further back - as most of us are aware. If anyone is bothered by the amount of mails coming from the Rootsweb mailing lists they are subscribed to they can do either one of two things - Go to Digest and have the postings to that list delivered to them in digest mails or they can unsubscribe and do their research elsewhere. Beginners please read the following guides both are useful Rootsweb guide for beginners http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/ Roy Stockdill's guide for Newbie genealogists (UK) http://www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html Caryl List Admin