Listers -- This is a response to Elaine <Scr1ptwr2ter@aol.com> who asked on 25 Feb if she could filter out all HWE messages which didn't have to do with her BOCQUET name and their Huguenot origins. (If you missed Elaine's post, it had subject line: Re: [HWE] Delete previous message(s) in replies -- which was not relevent to her message and was one I had used myself on another topic three days earlier.) Since I thought that there may be some Joe Bloggs out there (and, of course, his wife! <g>) wondering the same thing, here is the answer to Elaine's question. No, there is no way to filter out all those posts which you may not want to read because they are not about your particular surname. Of course, you can filter out some messages yourself by using the subject line as a guide and only opening ones which you think have relevence to you, based on that subject line. But subject lines can sometimes be misleading <g>. I personally feel it's never a waste of time to at least skim through the posts of others. Even if they are not about surnames or areas you are interested in, there is often a small nugget of information which may help you, lead you to new connections or to previously-unthought-of research directions. If you are a subscriber to a mailing list on a particular topic, like HWE, you will receive messages which are not about your particular surname of interest. That's just the way it is. If you want to receive only messages about the surname you are interested in, you can join a mailing list about that particular surname, if there is one. You can find mailing lists about surnames on the Rootsweb site at www.rootsweb.com. If there isn't a mailing list about your surname, you can contact Rootsweb and request to start one. But even on such a list, it is likely that other researchers, even though they are interested in the same surname, will have no interest or connection to Huguenots. So, all you Bloggses out there (and Elaine too <g>), you're stuck with HWE as it is. It's not a terribly busy list, you know, considering that our subscribers number about 345 at present. The vast majority never post at all. If you don't like receiving individual messages throughout the day, consider subscribing in digest mode so you will receive all list posts together in a group. Some people find list mail easier to handle in this way. An alternative way to handle the dilemma is to stay on the list for just a short time, making sure you leave a trace behind you before you unsubscribe, by doing the following -- * post to the list about your surname and your research. This will result in your information going into the list archives for others to find later and, hopefully, contact you. * request that your surname(s) and accompanying details be put on the HWE Surnames List on the website, again so others can find it in future and contact you. Hope these comments have helped others who may be feeling as Elaine does. My best to all, Andrea