First of all a very big thank you to the great many of you who responded to my HANDS enquiry, both on and off list. Several responded with whole chunks of data. Yippee!!! Some of you have also clearly hit the proverbial brick wall. Might I suggest after checking some census data you do a couple of things so that you stand a higher chance of finding a relative. 1. post an enquiry on the Ancestry noticeboard http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.hands/mb.ashx - free subscription and it automatically cross posts to the Rootsweb HANDS email list. 2. also post on the Genealogy.com board, again free subscription, http://genforum.genealogy.com/hands/ Just give the basic information - the names of the family, where they are located and the date of the event or time frame they were, or thought, to be in the area. More details can be supplied later, but that is sufficient for search engines to pick up. Ancestry, Rootsweb and Genealogy.com are all now part of the same organisation. But some people stick to what they know and don't get maximum exposure. Again thank you one and all. -- Mike Yegwart Branch Chairman Bromsgrove BMSGH http://www.bromsgrovebmsgh.co.uk