Dear Jerry: Since, as you say, your research is far more complete, by your own hard work, than you could ever find on the Internet, most of these comments probably do not apply to you personally. But, they are reasons that have been discussed among professionals, so I thought I'd pass them along. You wrote: "(1) Why are researchers so reluctant to share their data?" I don't think all researchers are reluctant to share their data with responsible parties but this is a hot topic, especially among professional genealogists. Some of the reasons may be: 1) The person requesting the data does not give sufficient guarantees that the material will not be changed, edited, sources deleted, etc. Or that it will not be posted on a website, if that is an objection of the original researcher. 2) That the person will not use the material without giving credit to the original researcher. 3) That the person will not publish or pass along any part of the material without the expressed permission of the original researcher. 4) That the person will respond in kind and reciprocate by exchanging their data as well, with the same considerations. 5) The person has perhaps made an unreasonable request of "give me everything you've got" and the original researcher is not agreeable to that. There are, of course, many other valid reasons but those are a few. "(2) Why is it when you think you have a connection, you never hear from them again?" Again, there can be many reasons but most of the above conditions/answers apply to this question as well. Others may be: 1) They are busy and do not have the time to give the person "everything" they want. 2) They simply don't want to share their family data. 3) They don't feel the "sharing" will be of any benefit to themselves. 4) They paid (or are still paying) a researcher hard earned money to find the documents they have and they don't want to "give it away." An offer of 'sharing' expenses may help alleviate this reason. "(3) Why do they say they will cooperate and then don't?" You'd have to ask them. But, I think that basically, if you lay out for them exactly what you plan to do with their material and that you demonstrate that you will handle it responsibly and give them credit for their work, most will share at least SOME of their data. If you offer to share the expenses they have incurred for documents (birth, death, marriage certificates, wills, etc) and certainly pay for copying expenses and postage, this may go a LONG way in eliciting cooperation. Professionals have a different dilemma. If someone has paid them for the information, ethics demand that they get the clients' permission before disseminating the materials to ANYONE else. And, permission if they plan to publish the findings. I also think that you generally will find that the smaller the interest group (family surname lists), the more cooperation you may find. But, even then there are valid reasons for people not sharing. Particularly if they have been "burned" by someone irresponsible before and have found their material literally 'stolen' and pasted on someone's WebPages as if it were their own work. This has happened to MANY people, myself included. It's even worse when you find your work totally mangled (edited, deleted, out of context, etc.)!!! Believe me, that family member will never get information from me again! I hope you don't get discouraged by this. There are ways to work with others who are serious and respectful of your work and your wishes/requirements as well. You just have to get to know the person and negotiate what is acceptable to both of you. Once the trust is built up, and perhaps the future work divided between you and/or worked on in concert, expenses shared, etc., things usually work out well. I find that the exchange of information is usually free flowing at that point. Best regards. Nancy. NColeman NYC/Long Island Family History Research Services http://www.genealogyPro.com/ncoleman.html http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/c/o/l/Nancy--Coleman/ ncroots@worldnet.att.net NYGenExchange: www.genexchange.com/NY/index.cfm