Ok, here's my situation. Three of four years ago John Carpenter of CA contacted me about my Carpenter line that he had seen published in a journal published by James Aussie Carpenter. I by the way made mistakes in that genealogy and contacted James at a later date to straighten it out. I met James Aussie through my correspondence with Raymond George Carpenter, Genealogist for the American Carpenter Family. Raymond was a great guy but you had to decipher his handwriting. He didn't have a computer and wrote long hand :) At any rate, I sent my feeble gedcom to John in CA and he in turn sent me his work which at that time consisted of a database of about 18,000 individuals. A while after this I became aware of an article in "American Genealogist" October, 1995 by Gene Burzinsky who gave new information about Carpenter ancestry which I then sent to John. Not long after meeting John in CA I started writing to John L. Carpenter in NH. John was extremely helpful to me in understanding the Providence, RI line and sent me many journals and publications. What I'm trying to say is you couldn't meet more helpful gentlemen if you tried, I like them both very much and I respect them, I like to call them friends and I do not use that term loosely. I met Professor Bruce Carpenter ( through e-mail) several months ago. We talked in length privately about our Carpenter ancestry. He was also quite helpful to me and quite "civil", a likable guy for sure. Now I know some of you are going to call me on this but it's true, the Bruce I know is quite friendly and "normal". I can understand his anger,I mean if someone kept posting PUBLICLY that our family was descended from Hitler for an example( and I'm not saying De Melun was like Hitler, I have no idea who he was other than what's been posted) and my records and research were totally opposite then I would be upset. Would I call the other researcher an idiot? I might, but not PUBLICLY! I would publish my "Proof" and settle the debate in this manner. After all is said and done this is the only way to get at the "truth". Calling people names publicly solves nothing except perhaps the loss of subscribers, which by the way cost this list at least 20 just this past week. Please lets not lose any more of our family. As I said before I'm not qualified to offer an answer on who's theories are correct Tony's or John's or Bruce's or none of the above I have not done the PERSONAL research to offer an opinion. I AM overjoyed that people are working on it! Do I think it makes a difference if your from the Rehoboth line or Providence line or Zimmerman? Not at all.... the list is for ALL Carpenter and Zimmerman lines. So, you see the problem here for me, I consider all three gentlemen "friends" of mine and I respect them all. Am I interested in medieval Carpenter genealogy? You bet I am. I have had my "American" ancestors for quite some time now and would like more info on the early line. I have by the way applied for a separate Medieval Carpenter genealogy list, don't know if I will get it. The other thing is this.... If this bickering bothers you why in the world, as has been suggested don't you configure your e-mail program to not receive mail posted by anyone who offends you? This is simple to do... I can't imagine myself getting a computer and going on the Internet not knowing the first thing about how the computer or my programs work! I agree that this is not something you should have to resort to but it is an option and this is the real world. Doing this would immediately solve your problem, end of story. Please, lets get along.. Chuck Who's family came down from the trees when John L.'s did :) Hey, maybe they even lived together! PS: I have asked John L. Carpenter in NH who I feel most closest to and who I also know would do a great job to take over this list, so far I haven't had much luck........ Please visit my web site "Chuck's Wood-Knots" at: http://www.evcom.net/~chuck2/index.html Carpenter Genealogy at: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/6712/index.html