Hi, Missing Lincs,     I spent the morning going thru the Archives of another mailing list looking for information on a place I knew too little about.  I found some good information, but I also ran across a bunch of postings that reminded me of a theme for out list.  More on that below.     One item jumped out at me.  It was a post asking a person to go to a churchyard about 8 miles away and to get a rubbing of one of the gravestones.  Now, it was dated early February a few years back, and my first thought was, "You need to say NO."  Nobody's gonna get me traipsing around a churchyard in mid-February to do a rubbing.  I've been in wet, cold churchyards with six inches of snow on the ground and I don't plan to repeat the experience.  Now, I'll admit, I didn't see the response in the archives, so, if there was one, it was "off list".  We have so many good people on this list who don't mind going out of their way to help, but let's not kill ourselves trying.     And I've still got one of those, "Hey you're a MILLS, help me with my family tree" requests in my mailbox I need to reply to.  I'm still working on the wording.     But the other mailing list had some of the same issues we've had on ours.  People believe certain myths about their families, or make up myths sometimes.  Certain truths are inconvenient.  If you find Henry and Sarah in the census listed as married and the oldest child is three, then they got married 4 years before, right?  The marriage registration must have the date wrong, eh?     So, for the benefit of everyone on the list, what is your "favorite" myth vs. reality?  Here's another example: MYTH:    My ancestor owned a farm in NETHER HEREBY.... REALITY:  My ancestor leased farmland in NETHER HEREBY...     I have found that my fellow Americans believe that everyone owned their own houses, farms, etc.  It's part of the American dream.  But one of the reasons many of our ancestors went to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Texas, etc. is the desire to own the land they worked.  Of course, now, if you own a farm, the "people" want to take it away from you and give it to the "people".  You own the farm, you must be Rich, so we want to take it from you.     There's darn few of us who had any ancestors with money and land.  Most of my ancestors seemed adverse to holding on to any money they got, and none of them had much to pass on to their children.     Again, what is your myth and reality?            Lou (list admin.)