Dear Researchers, Have you talked to your local public librarian lately? If not, check to see whether there is a webpage, hopefully with an online catalog. Ask that librarian whether the local library has an online genealogical database called HeritageQuest. If not, ask whether there is a nearby library or a State library which has this subscription. Private parties cannot subscribe. You need a library card with a number on it--the number being your password. I just recommended to someone searching the surname Alves to try to find E. L. Starling's history of Henderson Co. Lo and behold--it and 12 other books are on HeritageQuest. If your library does not subscribe to this useful (and at times surprising) database, you must join and get your genealogy society to join the Friends of the Library. In California, taxes have been cut so that Libraries were starving to death until citizens formed Friends of the Library and held book sales and other fundraisers. Genealogists, even with the internet, cannot do without LIBRARIES. That is why so many of us make pilgrimages to large genealogical libraries, such as the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Winter time is best for serious researchers who can stand the altitude and desert like weather--the library is filled with adults in winter--not noisy kids who hog the computers and generally are a nuisance!!! E.W.Wallace