First of all, let me apologize to all of you who may have received duplicate invitations to join the list. I used http://www.infospace.com/info.go2net/index_ppl.htm and http://www.theultimates.com/ which are the two best engine sources I know... and, while I did try to crossref, it became nearly impossible after awhile. I sent out over 200 invitations. I hope we will get a good solid exchange going. I like to work collaboratively, so please feel free to email me directly at any time with suggestions and/or comments. My style is pretty casual, but I will seek to keep us sharing in the general arena of genealogically relevant topics. Anytime I see net links that might apply to the research efforts of list members, I will post them and I encourage you to do the same. As the list gets going, and archive will automatically be stored through Rootsweb. To search the surname-l archives, point your web browser to: http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl This will take you directly to the page to begin a search. You will be asked for the name of the list followed by a "submit" button to click on. The next screen has examples of search words and a "Query" blank. Fill the blank with the word you wish to search for and then click on the "search" button. The next screen will give information about the search. There will also be a place to choose how to view the messages. Choose "Full" from among the choices. The messages should then appear on the next screen to scroll through. You can then go back and choose a different word and begin another search. Or you can experiment with the different choices on how to view the messages such as: From, To Message ID, Subject, content-type, message-body. If you have other surnames you are researching, you can go back and choose another surname List to search. I will create another post offering my family story and I encourage you to do the same. If you need some conversation starters, consider sharing any or all of the following: 1) Where are you today, actually, geographically? 2) What are your DEWHURST lines ( you can use the simple format for example: DEWHURST, Wm. Henry; 1816, Hackney, Middlesex, UK>Jms. Wm., 1852, Finchley, Middlesex, UK & Jms. Sidney; 1894, Finchley, Middlesex, UK>USA, 1903>Allan Arthur; 1920, San Francisco, CA, USA>Jana Lee; 1949, San Francisco, CA,USA, etc.) 3) How long have you been researching 4) How did you get interested in family history 5) Where are you stuck 6) Can you take your Dewhurst line "back to Adam" - show us! 7) How can we best pass along our interest in family history to forthcoming generations 8) Anyone willing to share some good interview questions or techniques to get our elders to tell all 9) What are your favorite DEWHURST research internet links 10) Anyone know of books written on the DEWHURSTS? Hope we all enjoy the list and happy hunting!!! Jana Black Listowner, DEWHURST-L