I'm forwarding this suggestion from the LaSalle County, IL list I'm on (with Joanie's permission.) This is a great idea and I think is sort of what Gina is doing on the RanCo site. I know she could use help. If you ever get a shot at doing this, it would be great. Shirley ----- Original Message ----- From: Joan Johnson To: ILLASALL-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 9:11 AM Subject: [ILLASALLE] Request for information Spring is here, the crocus are just breaking thru, the birds are singing and the SHUDDER of church secretaries and sextons is heard throughout the county. The GENEALOGISTS are coming. The first letters will be arriving soon. "What information do you have...? My family was here 100 years ago..." But they don't mention the name of the family. So, the church secretary writes back and asks for the family names. "Well, it was Pete Smith, or maybe Schmidt or Schmitt", this to a German church, and the mail tag goes on, and on. Perhaps you have a really great person taking care of your cemetery, but he is threatening to quit. Why, because his phone number is out there as an emergency contact for the cemetery. Well, it IS an emergency if you have come all the way from Livingston Co. and just found out your Great Aunt Lucinda is buried in Riverside cemetery in Streator. But, the LA SALLE COUNTY GENEALOGY GUILD has the solution. They will copy your church/cemetery records, on or off site, and index them for you. You will now have an index, no more looking thru those old, fragile books. Your secretary can either choose to answer the queries or send a "form letter" to the the individual with the address of the Genealogy Guild. Naysayers: The church records are private. Show them online SSI records, the Secretary of State's site with marriage and death certificates, or Ancestry.com's 1930 census. the obituary lists. The books are old and fragile, copying will damage them. Aren't they damaged when you keep opening them looking for information. What about the embarrassing information. The Guild can black out information about "premature births". I have a relative that was 8-1/2 months premature. It happens in all families. So, ASK your minister, church secretary, sexton. A fire or water damage can destroy the history of your church. But, with a second set of records off site, those records won't be lost. Joanie ============================== Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 ==== INDELAWA Mailing List ==== Please Remember: When replying you are replying to the whole list and not to the individual that posted the E-Mail.