Hi All, I've been e-chatting with Bonnie Bess Wood about our new mailing list and I'd like to share some thoughts with you and hope that you will share your reaction. I haven't been putting much online yet because of the 20 or so I sent the announcement about the list to, only about 5 or 6 have actually subscribed at this point. It takes some a while to read their emails and respond. But, I thought I present a few ideas for thought... to get discussion going about what you want from this list. The following are some preliminary musings on what our list might do. I see these following topics as possible areas in which the list can be of service. You may think of others that we could add: LONG-TERM GENEALOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS; PERSONAL ISSUES; MISCELLANEOUS DATA; FUN STUFF; INTERACTIVE LONG-TERM: How can we make long-term contributions through this list? Why not begin at the beginning.... wherever that is..... Antoine Valentin from Fort de Chartres????? We could start out with some of the primary research that has been done by some of our members [Bonnie, Celine.... etc]. We would begin by putting all of their information on Antoine online. Then we'd invite everyone else to comment on it, noting any differences/discrepancies they might have with the presented data... We'd try to fill in any blanks being sure to have all sources cited. We'd then combine all of the data....thereby completing our work on Valentin. We then move on to his wife..... and then go child by child till we were ready to advance to the next generation..... This would be the major part of our ongoing long-term work. Before this can begin we have to figure out the technicalities. Do we have to create a web site to post this info? Should we keep this web site private until the information is so firmed up that we could go public with it. And how do we do this [logistically]? These are examples of items that need further research and discussion. Enough for this for now, lets move on. PERSONAL: All the while we are working on our long-term project, will be receiving individual requests for help with their problems/blocks, etc. We will continue to respond to these individual requests as they arise. MISCELLANEOUS: We can also make "miscellaneous" individual contributions.... For example, if I go to the library and come up with something on some Degruy ancestor..... some cemetery location..whatever.... I can come home, get online, and share my findings with the list... a "miscellaneous" entry which someone else might find helpful. FUN: I'd like to do some things just for fun.... like sharing the info on Switzerland or heraldry [noting the meaning of Gruy is Crane, etc] that Bonnie and Celine have.... INTERACTIVE: We can share information with others or engage in discussion with other. For example, I will soon send an email to the folks at LAORLEAN to let them know about our new list. Eventually, I'll send to any other relevant lists or bulletin boards. We're so new, Rootsweb hasn't had time to put us on their own Mailing List page. Again, I've been hanging back about doing any of this because I wanted to give the list a little time to get stabilized. Part of being "interactive" is to bring to our list any helpful info from other lists which we may be members of. Ideally we should all realize that this is "our" list and each of us should take "ownership" of it and how it develops. So...I look forward to hearing your reactions to these thoughts and your ideas about other possibilities. Renee