Wynne- Though I'm sure you meant the below statement to be helpful to the person who asked, to me it sounded quite rude. Our policy (Butch & I) with our site & our Davenport research is "if you'd like to know if you're related to these lines- send them to us and we'll see if we can connect you!" Quite possibly that person was speaking to Butch or myself, honestly looking for help with their family line. We believe that sharing info between researchers is the only real way of doing this family search, in this way we not only find our ancestors, but we also obtain and keep friendships with our new found cuzzins. It's not for me to say, but if it were, I'd say you owe that person a big heartfelt apology! There is only *one* way to ascertain what your ancestry is and that is the 'hard way' (but lots of fun, nevertheless). You begin with your parents, - documenting all information you can find and then continue with 'their' parents, and so on. Eventually you will come to their arrival in this country, the ship or boat they were on and the port of embarkation. With a little luck the passenger list may reveal more information as to where they came from, with whom they travelled, etc. You cannot begin in the middle of something, such as find a name like your own and decide that this is your "relative". Another way of illustrating what I mean is to think of all the Smiths in all the telephone books in this country. Do you really think you are related to all of them? Wynne