Dear Joy I so agree about Ray's response! I have known Ray for awhile and he is definitely someone who knows what he's talking about! (lol ray) As far as books....Google books has a wealth of books which can be read online....although recently they have had some issues with copyrights and some of their books were unavailable. But if you go on the site and put in whatever you are looking for like "Geography Tyrone" you'll be amazed at some of the books that come up. I am well known for finding so much on google in previous "times". In fact there are books many written in the early 1800s describing life and people in Ireland. Good luck with your research and as I am sure you have seen during your years "reading" here...people on these lists are more then willing to help each other....ALL you need to do is ask or post and incredible info and advice will appear. As far as "past" I believe Ray is talking about the Archives. You can reach that by going to the main rootsweb site, under Lists. Whatever it is you need...always just ask...there is an incredible amount of info that the people on this list are more then willing to give you!! Good Luck! Sue in NY PS Ray...hmmmm..."need a Promotional Agent?" LOL In a message dated 12/18/2009 9:29:19 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, joyhogghwh@yahoo.com writes: Dear Ray and list members, What a great response to Candace and to folks like me. I am writing small books on mycanvas.com for family members and within a year I will tackle my husband's Hogg/Bayne/Farrel/Cousley tree. This one will be hard as I am not infused with the history and flavor, as I have been with the trees on my side. I have discovered there are certain unspoken trends, tendencies, values etc. that go down the generations of families, and one has to be careful to get what I call the flavor. So I immerse myself in the history and geography and then the social history of an area before I write. So I have some questions about sources. You mentioned to Candace she might perhaps look at these postings going back several years. Do we have archives like that? I have been reading here for about 2 years. Secondly, are there any books or web site which would capture the feelings, concerns, history of this area from the early 1800's through the early 1900's? I particularly need to understand that sore point - the Orangemen Protestants and why Dave Hogg's family left Tyrone. I need to understand whether it was economic, socio-economic or whatever the reasons wee for whole families to leave. Any ideas on reading material before I start into this side of the family? Trees are dry - who begat whom doesn't interest our young. I need to research the stories. Joy Hogg, Cadillac Michigan USA ------------- Our community web-site: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cotyroneireland ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to COTYRONEIRELAND-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message