My friends - Thanks to our good friend Pam Ingle, who contacted me and suggested that I explore a fairly new self-service database web site, put up by the Intuit Corporation, I am happy to be able to tell you that we have a web home now for posting the surnames in the Jackson Purchase region which we are researching. As most of you know, I had been laboriously inputting data for the past two-and a half months into a spreadsheet which I planned to place on the web, and which would contain the surnames which had been supplied to me by all of you, along with a mailto link for each subscribers' address who was researching that name within the 8 counties of the JP region. This turned into a very labor intensive task, and I was not progressing as rapidly as I would have liked, due to all of the other genealogical tasks which I also handle on a daily basis. This database site solves all of that. I have uploaded the surname portion of the spreadsheet data to the web site, and have created fields which will hold up to 4 e-mail addresses of those who are researching each surname. In the cases of common surnames(such as Smith, Jones, etc.), the surname is shown on two consecutive lines, thereby doubling the number of e-mail addresses which can be entered. The beauty of this site is that each of you will be able to go to the site, register and log in, and then go to the database and find your surname. When you find it, you can click on the little tab to the left of the surname which says "edit". When that page comes up, you enter your e-mail address and send that back to the program, and it will then appear as a mailto link in one of the e-mail address fields that correspond to that surname. Someone visiting the site can simply click on the mailto link and he/she will be automatically sent to a mail window in whatever mail program they may be using, from which the person can send a message to the other individual. This was exactly how I had planned for the spreadsheet design to work, but this site allows each of you to input your own e-mail addresses, thereby saving me untold hours of work. If there is a downside to it, it is perhaps the fact that you will have to register first in order to get access, but that is a one-time effort. After registering, when you go to the main site, all you need to do is click on the "Log In" button. The database is also somewhat slow in loading, but much of that will depend on the speed of your modem. If you have a DSL line or a cable modem, it will load in a matter of a few seconds. With an analog modem, it may require up to 30 seconds to load, as it is a large database. The URL to the site is: www.quickbase.com - when you arrive there, you will see the main page of Quickbase. On the right is a "Register" button. You will need to complete registration, after which the program will send back to your e-mail address(almost instantaneously) a link to click on for you to complete registration. Once that is done, you can then proceed to the database, the name of which is simply Jackson Purchase. You will find a Search box on the left side of the page when you return, into which you place the words Jackson Purchase and send it. This will bring up the opening page of the Jackson Purchase Database. On the left, click on the choice which says, "View All Surnames". This will then bring up the table with the surnames shown, in alphabetical order. From there, you can scroll down to your research surname(s) and click on the "edit" button on the left, which will take you to a page where you can enter your e-mail address and send it. That will place your e-mail address into the table. This may seem a bit cumbersome, but I think it is worthwhile that there are some steps to take to get to the database itself, in order to discourage "cyber vandals" from "messing with" these databases. I will place a link to quickbase in some strategic locations, and will also perhaps create an "Instruction Page" website to allow new folks who join us to have somewhere to go to know how to add their addresses and surnames to the database. This is really a "trial" for awhile, to see how well this works, and if we have problems. It seems simple enough, but we never know for sure until it gets used. Let me know if you have problems with it. Please be patient with it also, as it apparently gets many hits throughout the day, and response time can be slower at some points than at others. I can't really complain, however, since Intuit is providing this service, at this level, without charge. The site awaits your e-mail addresses....... -B =================================================================