Good Day! I just want to give you an update on our new Rootsweb website . . . FERGUS subscriber, Bill Richards, from Kenora, Ontario CANADA has been graciously volunteering his computer talents. Bill is a GenWeb host for the Manitoba, CA site. Also, he is the gentleman who connected to the family I posted from Racine, Wisconsin back to his roots in Scotland. Now, he has volunteered to use his expertise in web design and has been diligently working with me for the last 4 hrs. to put up the "FERGUS Research Worldwide" website. And, Vicki Jensen, another subscriber has volunteered to retrieve the messages that have been archived since the beginning of the newsgroup. These will be organized by month and will be available on this new website! >From the very first day I found the genealogy community online I had hoped to find a site with all kinds of information and data available for FERGUS'. It was not to be found . . . and so, it was my vision to begin to work toward this end. When I was to speak (and give a slide show on my recent trips to Ireland/Northern Ireland) for the FERGUS Reunion in Piqua, Ohio last June, I wanted to have a website on board prior to that. And, another subscriber (Doc Dougherty), who is not directly related to the FERGUS', but has FERGUS cousins, surprised me with the beginning of a FERGUS website! What an incredible gift!!! Next, I met Shirley and Barney FERGUS (Doc's "lost" cousins) at the reunion and we began a FERGUS partnership of gathering and sharing information. Shirley and her daughter, Emmy, have been key contact persons, as I have forwarded names to contact - they have written to each to encourage joining the FERGUS newsgroup and to sign the Guest Books. Shirley and Barney became the second subscriber(s) to the newsgroup. Yes, we were up and rolling with their help! Now, I must acknowledge Doc in his own paragraph. And, for those of you who know me you will have a :) or a ;) when I relate that I did give him a fair warning that: I am a visual person; scale counts; color (colour) is critical; flags are favs; persistence is not always a gift; perserverance can test endurance; and, I had/have little experience with PCs = just wasn't born with computer genes! Soooooo, I know you are getting the picture here. Yes, Doc has received literally hundreds - perhaps 400-500 e-mail messages from me, and, patiently worked through each one to create the FERGUS Family Website that I hope all of you are familiar with. This has been a monumental task which via the Guest Book permitted persons to post their lineage. Yes, a great beginning! Thank you Doc, you know you are appreciated! This website will remain, however, now I will begin to move some of the information to the FERGUS Research Worldwide website to allow me to acknowledge the other family alliances I have. Changes are almost always complicated, can be difficult, but in the end the result is always a step forward! We are on that threshold now. There is still more work to be done before announcing the URL, but it will soon be up and running. I wanted to publicly thank and acknowledge the unselfish gifts that Doc, Shirley, Emmy, and Barney have supplied with love and humor (humour). Notice the spelling changes? Well the alternate of the American spelling is of course the English spelling to honour our members from Canada, Ireland ( the whole island), Scotland, and Australia. The FERGUS' are worldwide! Ready, Aye, Ready! Cynthia Russell FERGUS Website http://www.traverse.net/people/crussell/fergus_family.htm FERGUS Newsgroup FERGUS-L@rootsweb.com Rootsweb Archives: http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl