Hi again family, I thought to put this in today's Coffee message, but decided against it since not everyone participates in them. On August 5th, 1998 at 9 p.m. European time [equating to 3 p.m. on the U.S. east coast] the Bower Family Homestead held its housewarming and the Bower discussion group was officially launched. Since then our family has grown to four separate research groups. In all four groups we are nearly 450 cousins now, coming together from around the world. Our two-year anniversary is coming up in just about 2 months and we'll be celebrating with a potluck cyber-reunion/picnic on August 5th. Our potluck "meal" will be files of Bower[s]/Bauer/Baur data donated by each of the cousins in all the family groups to "feed" the family - a "dish" such as a list, a county census extraction, a biography, 3-4 generations of a family, a couple wills, a few deeds, a county's/country's obituaries for a given period, immigration/emigration records, pictures, copies of certificates [deceased only - no living], etc. We all have material gathered during our searches. As with any potluck, you can be creative! You can submit one dish, or as many as you'd like. Following the reunion, the data will be housed at the Homestead and you will be given the credit for anything you submit with an email link for the surfing public to contact you. I take no credit for any of your work. Your dishes should be sent directly to me so I can "set the table" [put the files online]. Deadlines for submitting your "food" is 10 July 2000. You can begin sending your dishes in now, if you have them ready. What Bower/Bauer/Baur "recipe" would you like to share and "feed" the family with? I hope you all have a super, super Sunday! Colleen