Hi Renee, This is just a thought. I am willing to help in any way. If anyone is in the Jefferson Parish Genealogical Society, perhaps they could get the event sponsored. Perhaps the library itself would be willing to host the event at no cost for the room. It could be "Researching Your Early French Ancestors: A Case Study Using the DeGruy family of France, Illinois, and Louisiana". We have done that in the past at our local library. How many people can the room accommodate? We could list all allied family surnames and perhaps draw in fellow researchers who are working on these surnames. Our local library even publicized the event via bookmarks, free space in the Happenings or Events page of the local paper, and on the library bulletin board and web site. It is a good way to meet other related researchers and still give out general information to the public. We would need to reconstruct our research methods to let people know where to start looking. Perhaps we could do a handout on "How to properly document our efforts, keeping a research log, and handling ambiguous records." Start with the basics. In the past I have done some seminars on these topics, so I can prepare that information if you would like. My degree is in historical research, so I have no problem talking about how to research, and where to look for forgotten records. Bonnie might be interested in doing a presentation on how to effectively use interlibrary loan or give us some good pointers on other matters. You have taken trips to various areas to get answers, so you could do a presentation on these trips and show what records you discovered. You have used professional researchers, so again you can relate your experiences in this area. I am sure that there are others in our group who could contribute something, not only useful to our group, but to research in general. A seminar from 10a to 4p is what we usually do at our local library. We could devote the first two hours to presentations, and the last part to comparing notes,answering questions, and helping each other get past our "brick walls". Love to All, Isabel