In a message dated 7/6/02 10:00:41 PM Eastern Daylight Time, reiley@usol.com writes: > As genealogists we are researching bloodlines, too many researchers ignore > maternal lines, following only the surname line. A serious mistake as > maternal lines tend to keep old letters, postcards and photos. Women are far > more family oriented than men are. It is especially true of women who never > married. Don't ignore the old maids and those who were widowed young and did > not remarry. > > To achieve maximum results, always follow BOTH paternal and maternal lines. > My breakthroughs have ALWAYS come from females. > > Best wishes, > Dennis Reiley > reiley@usol.com > Dennis is right! I cannot tell you how much family information I have due to letters from females to others...dating back to 1869 (maybe earlier!) I don't think people in my husband's families EVER threw a scrap of paper away! So...before you give up on a family, do as Dennis suggests... explore the female lines! And another tip... before you through away correspondence from family members, (as we often do) remember us...who spent weeks digging through a dumpster when a cousin cleaned out his mother's attic and basement. We KNEW she had some family history stuff...he didn't ... and NONE of us knew how much! Thank God we were able to preserve all that had been passed down for more than 100 years! Kathleen