Dear Nalora, Thank you too!!! I wish I lived close to the OHS, but then I wish I lived close to about 50 other great centers of research. :-) As you point out, the great advantage to the LDS, FHC's is that there is one nearby to just about everyone (OK already... I heard that groan from the Yukon!). I received some personal inquiries about the availability of the records I spoke of so I thought I would clarify, here, a bit. Sorry, but I tend to be a little too detail orientated (my wife, Linda, calls it something else :-) ) so I have been trying to work on being more concise and missed a couple of important points. The 3 files I wrote about are not on line. I think there are plans for doing so but this will probably be a lengthy process. Even so, these files will only lead you to the microfilms that are available. You will then need to rent the ones that interest you. For now your only options are to go to your local FHC to do this. What is available on line are the International Genealogy Index, the IGI, and the Personal Ancestral File, the PAF, but these are only useful for finding families through the use of surnames and they should be used only as a clue to further research because they can be unreliable. You can access them at: <www.familysearch.org> As a rule abiding RootsWeb member, I will not engage in the type of conversation that has permeated the list over the last few days, but I hope I will be forgiven if I stick in a "Happy you're still with us" here. :-) Yours truly, David At 10:24 AM 03/26/2000 -0600, you wrote: >Thanks David! I am not an expert on the LDS FHC's since most of my research >is done at the Oklahoma Historical Society. I am aware, because of my own >enlightenment when I first began doing family research that for those who >do not live in the State of Oklahoma (and even those who do, but do not >live near enough to the OHS) that there is usually an LDS FHC nearby where >there is access to most of the microfilms available at the Archives. One >must realize that to the Latter Day Saints the idea of genealogy is not >just a hobby, but a spiritual and religious imperitive, so they are very >good at collecting the records of our ancestors in their repository, and >are also (at least in my experience) very helpful as far as their >volunteers go. One must be patient in the smaller FHC, as the volunteers >are few. But patience pays off in great reward for genealogists using this >wonderful resource. >Nalora