At the bottom of the home page for the GERMANNA COLONIES Family History web site, there is now a Chat Room. It is simple to use. You just type in a User Name, and real name and email address if you wish, then click the Connect button below the boxes. It will only work if there is also someone else logged on, otherwise you would have to talk to yourself (G). This is just something I'm trying out. It was free for me to install and is free for you users, although there will be small ads that pop up at the bottom, which can be ignored. If it's not used, I will probably just take it off. I don't know how useful something like this is to you. I tentatively indicated that there would be a Chat every Sunday from 7:00-11:00 PM; however, if a group of you make prior arrangements, this would be a wonderful place for you to chat, ask questions, answer questions, help someone, etc., at any time. For instance, if anyone had something they really needed to talk to several others about, they could send email to each of them and arrange a time and date to use the Chat Room. Or, anyone could post a note here, saying something like: "We will be on the Chat Room Tuesday night at 8:00 PM and would like to have all RECTOR researchers join us. We would like to discuss, specifically, the family of Nancy RECTOR, who was born in Rowan Co., NC, in 1790, but all RECTOR questions are welcome." I don't know how the rest of you feel, but when I'm using the Chat Room I would like to see at least the names of the "chatters", not just a "User Name". Email addresses are really not necessary, unless some- one needs to write to you and requests it. Be assured that Rootsweb is a very, very secure site and giving your names and/or email addresses will not result in anyone "stealing" them. Users can always pass emails back and forth, but that takes time. You can use the Chat Room in "real time" and immediately see the conversations. Anyone, on any List, Forum, Board, etc., is welcome to participate. I'm sending a CC: to each of the other Lists I manage, but I would suggest that if you are sending an announcement of a get-together in the Chat Room, you post it on the GERMANNA_COLONIES List, as well as to the specific SURNAME List involved. If any of you want to pass on this email to other Mailing Lists, fell free to do so. Just as long as the chats are restricted to actual Germanna-related topics, and notifications of planned chats are sent here to the GERMANNA_COLONIES List. I think this free tool may be of great benefit to some of us. If any of you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to email me here on the List. (NOTE: You must be using a web browser that supports JAVA Scripts, which includes MSIE and Netscape, as long as you have them configured to allow JAVA and JAVA Scripting.) Regards, SgtGeorge George W. Durman Listmanager Web Site Manager Message Boards Manager