In a message dated 7/20/2006 10:16:11 AM Eastern Standard Time, decann@infionline.net writes: If you want an explanation of how this can happen, you will have to get it from RW. If you want to know what boards and list it is, I can tell you offlist if you really want to know, but this is far from being a unique situation. I'm at work though, and it will take some time to find all the boards, so a reply may have to wait a day or so. David David- Actually it IS a rather unique situation and was only done by special arrangements with RootsWeb in SPECIFIC cases--and, to my knowledge, it was NEVER approved for surname list/boards. Mainly you will see this for locality boards/lists when there are overlapping territories serviced by one of the resources for which RootsWeb didn't want to create more lists or boards for a more localized geogrphic area and thus permitted the multiple gatewaying of more than one board to the one list. Joan

I wish that it could be set up for several surname boards to gateway to one mailing list. I have half a dozen surname situations where there are informal agreements to funnel all activity to one list, but it is not as efficient as having the actual gateway. The last time I brought this up, I got several lectures about how names may look the same but be very different, blah blah blah. Those of us who are researching know that Hetrick and Hettrick are the same name. I wouldn't agree to gateway Hedrick and Hedderish to the same list but it is just silly to have two mailing lists with 5 subscribers each when there are so few of us in the US researching the name. I own boards and lists for McCartan, McCarten, McCartin, McCarton. I assure you that they are the same name. Board people and list people have different working styles, so I'm fine with 4 boards - and for an obscure surname, they have a respectable amount of activity. I concentrate all the list activity on McCartan, and all the list people are fine with that. I'd love to gateway all 4 boards to the one list. As it is, I have to have 4 lists to stay on top of the boards (I am a list person). Diane Het(t)rick dhettrick@earthlink.net