Most of our readers "lurk" -- meaning to read other folks' messages without joining in. Those of us who don't lurk have no way of knowing who the rest of you are, genealogically speaking, even though you might be the missing link in other researcher's puzzle, or they in yours. I think it's time for a listreaders' census. This will be painless for each of you -- all you have to do is to send me a blank email with an appropriate subject line. I will collate and broadcast the results. This will be nearly painless for me if everyone will follow these directions. We'll do this OFF the list. I really am hoping for 100% participation here. :-) *** Fire up a blank email, and address it to [email protected] *** Now enter one subject line per #2, #3, or #4, whichever fits. Leave the body of the message blank. 2. IF YOU HAVE CONNECTED TO A FOUNDER: In the SUBJECT LINE, type "I'm researching _____", replacing the underscores with one or more of the following as appropriate: Capt. Thomas Brooks Henry Brooks of Woburn William Brooks of Scituate Gilbert Brooks of Scituate William Brooks of Springfield Thomas Brooks of Haddam John Brooks of Cheshire Henry Brooks of Cheshire The Kittery, ME line 3. IF YOU HAVEN'T CONNECTED TO A FOUNDER: In the SUBJECT LINE, type "My research locus is ______" replacing the underscores with a location in the format, TOWN, COUNTY, STATE. For Steuben County, NY, type, "Steuben County, NY." Or Hornellsville, Steuben, NY. Or NY State. I need to be able to distinguish between town, county and state names. Enter the earliest known location for your ancestor. Only ONE place per email, please. 4. IF YOU'RE NEW TO BROOKS RESEARCH: Type NEW in the SUBJECT LINE. *** Now send the sucker. You're done! If you meet both qualifications #2 and #3 -- you know you descend from Thomas of Haddam, but are also researching Haddam as well as Thomas -- then you can send me two emails, one person and one location. Same if you're researching a county in NY and one in OH -- send an email for each. I'm sure I haven't covered every possibility, but we need to keep this simple. If you're researching only Famous Brooks Podiatrists, and don't have a name or location focus, then I don't really know where to put you. :-) It's now Friday evening. The polls will be open for one week, until next Friday night, when I'll compile the results into name/address lists to share. If this works I'll do another census in the near future focused on unusual given names. ("I'm looking for Solon Brooks of Ohio.") Thanks for your assistance, Chris Christopher Brooks, List Administrator: ==================================== BROOKS-NE (Brooks Families of New England), HAPGOOD, and MERRIAM lists at RootsWeb. ==================================== [email protected]