Hello all, I was approached by listmember Kathy McKegg recently as to whether I would accept a GedCom of her Dewhurst branch in Australia. After further discussion, we agreed to post it on my website with the idea that if we begin to categorize the branches, over time, the family groups will get sorted and connected. So, using Kathy's data as the pilot, I have put her charts here: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~jmbhome/1dewhurst.html I have been thinking lots about the fact that though this is my direct paternal line, I know less about it than I do about most of my other lines! I have always attributed this to the fact that I am in California and all my Dewhursts were in Middlesex, London, making research harder. (They also fibbed and kept secrets, which doesn't help! ;]) As I have watched our conversation on the list however, I am seeing patterns in this family that lead me to believe that while we may all be at the end of "rootlets" right now, if we get all the lines in front of ourselves, we may be able to put it together without too much effort. Soooo, here is my offer. If you want to send me a GedCom, I will post it on my site. I liked the way Kathy gave me a sentence describing the line and I encourage anyone who sends me something to do the same. Here are my rules: 1) I will give you an email link as submitter (if you would like that) or not (as you prefer) 2) I will not post information about any generation that still has living members (so, if all your own parents, aunts and uncles are gone but if the children of your grandparents' siblings are alive, the data does not get posted) 3) I will only post data until it runs out of Dewhursts (i.e., until your mainline goes to a daughter who married into another surname) 4) The material must be your own proven data and not anything "grabbed" and/or not proved from the internet. 5) I will not sell the information nor post it anywhere that someone else can sell it. 6) I will do this for free for the benefit of all descendants and it will be posted where it can be accessed for free. I will probably ask a couple of you that I have known several years now and trust to be my "backup" in this effort. If for some reason I can no longer maintain the website, I will contact the list and ask someone to come forward and take it over with the same understandings. I will do this as I can, time permitting. If we gather enough information, I will ask the list to consider setting up a Dewhurst Family Association and post everything there. If you have web skills, and are willing to pitch in, let me know. If you have reason to think this is a lousy idea, please email me off the list. If you like the idea and want to participate, note I only include vital data on my charts, so you don't need to include notes. etc., so you can skip sending it. I am taking a deeeeep breath and hitting the send key! Jana Black Listowner, DEWHURST-L