I am an old hand at genealogy starting in the late '60s, back when it was pencil and paper, or occasionally, typewriter. There were "name collectors", but most of us worked hard doing research in original records, after we had done the literary survey, so we didn't reinvewnt the wheel. I also wish to emphasize that this missive is not aimed at any specific person or persons. It appears to me that there are more dabblers now, then there were back then. I subscribe to several lists and it seems that there are more people who want instant gratification. I work at a Family History Center and we always, at least before familysearch.org went on-line, got calls from people who wanted to reserve a computer so that they could download the ancestry and go home with it all done.. It appears that the"Net is a mixed blessing. It appears that people are forgetting about books and films and fiche and periodicals and are becoming dependent upon what they can get on the web, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Or from some of those darnable CD systems that purport to give you your ancestry, and to heck with if the information is accurate, sourced or anything else. Another deficit I am seeing and hearing is, "I don't have access to....." I have lived and done research in some pretty isolated places, but I could usually access most anything through correspondence, buying copies of articles, etc. Sometimes I would have to drive a few hours to do what I needed, but I got it done. Sometimes, I had to pay someone to track down a document. That's one thing that hasn't changed :-) This pastime still costs money if you are going to do it properly. :-( But you band together to do things collectively. There are genealogical societies that as part of membership will lend CDs and other items. Yes, I am on a soapbox and I apologize. I would like to hear, privately , so that we don't bore people to death, from others on their perceptions of the "NEW" genealogy or is it just genealogy spruced up in mod fashions? Thanks, Kay Allen AG