Hi everyone, My name is Maurice LeBlanc and I am the new list admin. How did I get here? I was doing some research for a relative the other day, a descendant of Pierre Lefrancois dit Lepage, which brought me to the orphaned FRANCOIS Message Board at Rootsweb. I noticed that the LEFRANCOIS and LEPAGE boards were also orphans. I'm a firm believer in the principle of mutual assistance, and from experience I have learned that one will learn more if one participates, however sporadically. While there is nothing wrong in simply lurking, if you're active you will generally benefit more. So in this spirit I adopted all 3 boards and this mailing list which is gatewayed to the FRANCOIS board. I'll see what can be done at Rootsweb to link this list with the LEFRANCOIS board as well since that small board does not have its own list and I don't feel a separate list is needed. Please write me privately if you have an opinion on this subject. I'm new to list administration, so you may have to bear with me if you have problems with lost messages, etc. I can only promise to do my best as soon as possible. I'd like to try something new here. If all goes well, and everyone behaves, we will do it some more on various occassions. The time and duration to be announced ahead of time. From today until March 8, you may make posts to the list telling us about yourself. The list will not be turned into a free for all biography list for any other time than these 2 weeks. Also, please do not post these biographies to the message boards, just this list. The message boards are for genealogy only, and I don't wish to have to delete any off-topic posts to clean them up. *** I ask that you put in the subject line:-) "My Biography". This is very important! This way those who do not care to read them may delete unread if they choose. Of course regular queries and answers are allowed at all times. If this works out and everyone behaves:-). We will do this again on other occasions. I'd like them to be special occasions. Feel free during the course of the year to write me privately ahead of time to inform me, so I can make a decision on them and post to the list if I agree. As I said, this will of course depend on how well this trial is received. I grew up an only child in Montreal, Quebec. My parents were from Western Canada, having moved to Montreal before I was born. My mother's parents immigrated to Saskatchewan from Brittany (France) some 5 years before the turn of the century. In my father's case, his family moved to Saskatchewan from the Eastern Townships when he was about 3 years of age. My dad's paternal ancestors were Acadian, and his maternal ancestors descend from Louis dit Parisien Dupuis, a "coureur des bois" who traded with the indians, and was eventually divorced by his wife in order to protect her own wealth. For my picture go to the "Links and Announcements" at the FRANCOIS Message Board. For more information on my ancestors, please go to my database at Rootsweb Worldconnect:-) http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=maurice_a_l I'm also hoping that some of our list members who do not usually post will participate, and in doing so feel more comfortable later making genealogical queries to our list. We are here to help each other and learn. I truly hope all of you stay with the list and continue to enjoy learning about our ancestors and their history. Thank you and don't forget that important subject line. Regards, Maurice PS:-) Portions of the above are taken from posts by Margy, the list mom for the ACADIAN-CAJUN message list of which I am also a member. Margy, I hope you don't mind my using your ideas without your prior permission. It has been said that imitation is often the best compliment.