I'm still out here, too, just sort of lurking. Hit the jackpot, in a sense, on my black sheep. When he was convicted of murder in 1893, for whatever reason the court records disappeared (he & 3 others were tried together). Everyone says they're someplace else. I did find record of another guy who was tried after these 4...his attorney filed an appeal after the conviction, and so I have a copy of everything that was in the State Supreme Court file in Michigan. Hip, hip hooray! However, it's not MY ancestor's court case, and while he is mentioned throughout the documents (as is his son-in-law, whom I did not previously know to be involved in this murder), it's not the same. Whine, whine, sniff. Now I need to figure out my next step... Anyway, has anyone else noticed that ALL the rootsweb lists seem to be slow these days? Maybe we're fluctuating with the stock market......... I have made one of my pet projects this week to let people know about the Missing Links and Somebody's Links newsletters. They're great newsletters that are swap-meets of a sort. Mary Jo has a photo of the Smith High class of 1920, and will share it with descendants of the graduates. Bobby has a copy of a death certificate for John Smith, but not "his" John Smith, and so he'll send it to a descendant. That sort of thing... The reason I mention it is that the editor says she may call it quits because of dwindling membership. I'd hate to see the lists go, because I think there are lots of success stories waiting to happen. Anyway, if you want to subscribe, here is some info.... To SUBSCRIBE (or UNSUBSCRIBE) from MISSING LINKS and SOMEBODY'S LINKS, search the database, read online or download back issues, and enjoy the illustrated versions of some articles previously published in MISSING LINKS, go to http://www.petuniapress.com/ and click the appropriate link. Sue G. IBSSG