There are many on this list who have been here longer than me but we have lost many members for many reasons. Some really fantastic members are doing their genealogy in the clouds and probably have brick walls crumbling with continuous happy dances. There are undoubtedly those who are no longer physically able to join our conversations. Others may not have the same interest they once had, I have a cousin who falls into that group. We have had our periods of discord and discontent and during these periods we lose many, some of whom were responsible for some of our best teaching. I have longed hope they would once again become active. IMHO many of us have just become to use to letting/expecting others to answer queries. We forget how easily the newbies get discouraged and offering an encouraging word might be just what is needed to keep them active. I have long believed that the more that search the more we will all find. That is if you will all keep it coming through the group. Actually I find it much better when it is a reply to the original message as this keeps the conversation threaded together in gmail. Someone many years ago smacked my hands verbally several times to get me to start using gmail and for genealogy I love all the advantages. I do get a little frustrated when topics are changed within a conversation and the subject is not changed. We all have our particular set of frustrations. While my actual techniques for genealogy have improved by leaps and bounds; my use of the computer will probably always be in the toddler range for many things. I do not apologize for asking for toddler steps as there may be others who need those also. We each progress at our own pace, leaping through some areas and lagging way behind in others. Holidays are almost always a time for open O/T messages. Elaine will usually post when the list is open and Elaine I apologize for often rushing the time. For some things we do have a sister list: memorylane@rootsweb. If you have memories of various times, events, food and etc. you want to discuss join memory lane. They are a wonderful group and you will find many of us there. Yes, things have changed and we are not all here constantly as we were at one time. For instance when I first joined the list, I had something strange happen to my aol email. The first thing I did was to send an emergency message to GN. Within seconds and I mean seconds, I had help coming at me from every way it could be sent. Pat was sending me help on IM and two or three others were sending emails. I had hit something to change the order my email was appearing. In less than 15 minutes everything was back to normal. To any who remember that and helped me, I still say thank you. We do need revitalizing in some way and maybe some of us need to not spend so much time on FB. Note I said US and that does include ME. Marilyn -- "If you don't get outside every day, even for a minute, you have not appreciated what God has done. It makes you grateful for our surroundings, and it starts your day differently." Johnny Cash