Hi Gaila! First, let me confess that genealogy is not only my hobby but my passion. I really get into it. Fortunately, my husband is as bitten by the genealogy bug as I am so we both are having a ball with it. My research can be divided by home, near home, and trips. When at home (Ormond Beach, FL) I use the Family History Center in Daytona Beach. They have a really good one there. I always have a stack of microfilm in and on order. For example, the Twiggs County, GA Tax Digest I mentioned was from film borrowed from the FHC. Please allow me to digress a moment in case some readers do not know about Family History Centers. Part of the Mormon religion is to do family research. They think they can then pray all their ancestors into becoming Mormons. I will make no comment on that at all. The good thing for other genealogists is that because it is a part of their religion, the Mormons have spent millions going all over the world and copying records (church, county, government, etc.). I could not even begin to guess the vast amount of microfilm, not to mention books they have. The really good thing is that you do not have to travel to Salt Lake City to take advantage of their vast collection. The local Family History Centers can borrow almost all rolls of microfilm for you (at a $3.75 per roll charge). They cannot borrow books. There are volunteers at the centers to help you with your research. One thing I seldom use is their computer ancestor files. I have looked at far too many ance! stor files that are riddled with errors to rely on them. They can be a helpful first step though but always follow up with your own research. The web address for the Mormons is: www.familysearch.org. It is an easy web site to use and I always look first at the library catalogue to find out what I want. Examples of what I order on microfilm are: land deed books, will books, estate records, marriage records, tax records, and court records. You really do not have to travel all the time to do research with those kinds of records at your finger tips. Hope that helps those who might not know about it. Now, back to answering your question. At home I also write for copies of documents either from county offices or state archives. I find sites for state archives on line and email them for help. In the past I have borrowed microfilm from state archives through interlibrary loan. That was because we were living in New Hampshire and as a faculty wife, I had access to Dartmouth College's fantastic Interlibrary Loan Department. Now that we have moved to Florida, I will lose that opportunity. Near home, I am only an hour and 15 minutes from Orlando Public Library. They have a top notch genealogy department. In addition to countless books, they have all of the U.S. census. That is where I do all my census searching. I make copies of everything and then bring it home to study. As far as trips go, we go to the Alabama Archives and the S.C. Archives about once a year each. Since Georgia is so close now, we have taken several genealogy research trips through those counties. The same is true of Alabama. We have been to the N.C. Archives also but they are further away. We have taken trips to Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana for me to research my mother's side. I find that nothing can beat actually getting into the counties where your ancestors lived. It always takes weeks to go through all we collect on those trips. The trip to Indiana included three days at the fantastic Fort Wayne Library. When living in New Hampshire, we took frequent trips to Boston to use the great New England Genealogical Society Library. Right now we are planning a trip to Vidalia, GA to use the Ladson Genealogical Library which is suppose to be great for southern research. Hopefully we will go early February. Those of you researching in S.C. or GA know the complete frustration of visiting a county for research only to find it was one burned by Sherman. On one trip to S.C., I was so angry about that whole situation that when the people in Orangeburg said they were a Sherman burned county, I angrily blurted out, "It's a good thing that man is dead or he would be when I got my hands on him!" My husband was mortally embarassed but the clerks were rolling on the floor in laughter. Sorry that was a much too long an answer. Kathy