Thanks for all the replies - there must have been two dozen! A variety of opinion, most on the side of free volunteer lookups. This is what I think now - I would be almost nowhere on my genealogy if it were not for others who looked things up for me for free. I don't think I could have afforded to pay money to all those people. Once one gets a few generations down, the quantity of surnames and possibilities are numerous. I have over three dozen surnames already in just a short time researching. I could not afford to pay for everyone helping along all those lines. I probably have accumulated over three or four hundred email REPLIES to my queries. If those were a dollar a pop - whoa. Having said that, let me say this: The time I spend looking up for other people is not trivial - it added up to, this time, 4 or so hours last month of my annual leave. However, I consider that time as a gift to genealogists everywhere in return for their gift of their time and trouble looking up stuff for me. It is exciting to find someone for other people - I share in the "coolness" of the find. My time is free. As for the cost of film rental fees - I have no moral heartburn over asking people to share the cost of them if I am looking up lots of unrelated names. However I do not want to handle cash at all - not ask for it, not accept it. So ..... here's my decision: I will now ask for a donation - in fact an equivalent $1 donation - asking people who request a lookup to send me a postcard of their home town, or perhaps of the region of the person they are looking up. The postcard and stamp will cost THEM money, but I don't want the cash - all I want is a thank you and a collection of greetings from lots of people from around the world. How does that sound? Kerry Butler [email protected]