Dear Richard Maybe the reason why the Dyfed Mailing List does not appear to get as many enquiries as the Carmarthenshire ones is that most research enquirers find their way to the Lookup Exchange which is accessed via the link on Gareth's Help Page _http://home.clara.net/tirbach/hicks.html_ (http://home.clara.net/tirbach/hicks.html) There, under the various Hundreds, you will find the name of people prepared to do lookups in the Hundreds in which they specialise. Using various indexes they are in one to one contact with the enquirer and do not come through the Mailing List. Pembrokeshire does not have the vast range of indexes that you and Pauline have worked on over the past 20 years or so but the volunteers do provide as much information as they can backed by local knowledge. However, of late, more and more enquiries seem to come on the the Mailing List and I do not know what percentage are dealt with direct. I believe that Pat Powell is one of the volunteers - a very knowledgeable, busy and involved lady! As regards Ancestry being able to provide all the answers I think it will be a sad day when researchers no longer look at the original documents. Admittedly it will save wear and tear on a valuable source but often the contents there can tell us so much more than a mere index. As a researcher for over 35 years I find it sad that people can look at a census index, order and order a copy of the entry online without any of the thrill of finding a person after hours of trawling that did give you some feeling of the area in which they lived and the people who would have been their friends and neighbours. Just amassing a collection of dates and places is not my idea of family history but then I'm one of the old fashioned kind! Bye for now Joy Bye for now Joy

Possibly, the same with CMN-L & CMN-FHS, Pauline and I get lots of questions/requests off list as well. Regards Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: <Joycozens@aol.com> To: <CARMARTHENSHIRE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2005 4:54 PM Subject: Re: [Cmn-L] testing > > Dear Richard > > Maybe the reason why the Dyfed Mailing List does not appear to get as many > enquiries as the Carmarthenshire ones is that most research enquirers > find > their way to the Lookup Exchange which is accessed via the link on > Gareth's Help > Page > > _http://home.clara.net/tirbach/hicks.html_ > (http://home.clara.net/tirbach/hicks.html) > There, under the various Hundreds, you will find the name of people > prepared > to do lookups in the Hundreds in which they specialise. Using various > indexes they are in one to one contact with the enquirer and do not come > through > the Mailing List. Pembrokeshire does not have the vast range of indexes > that > you and Pauline have worked on over the past 20 years or so but the > volunteers do provide as much information as they can backed by local > knowledge. > However, of late, more and more enquiries seem to come on the the Mailing > List > and I do not know what percentage are dealt with direct. > I believe that Pat Powell is one of the volunteers - a very > knowledgeable, > busy and involved lady! > As regards Ancestry being able to provide all the answers I think it will > be > a sad day when researchers no longer look at the original documents. > Admittedly it will save wear and tear on a valuable source but often the > contents > there can tell us so much more than a mere index. As a researcher for > over 35 > years I find it sad that people can look at a census index, order and > order > a copy of the entry online without any of the thrill of finding a person > after hours of trawling that did give you some feeling of the area in > which they > lived and the people who would have been their friends and neighbours. > Just > amassing a collection of dates and places is not my idea of family > history > but then I'm one of the old fashioned kind! > Bye for now > Joy > Bye for now > Joy > > > > ==== CARMARTHENSHIRE Mailing List ==== > Wales Genealogy CD's for Wales research > http://www.Wales-Genealogy.co.uk > >