My friends - Every now and then, I take a moment to remind us about various other sites useful to those conducting research in the JP region, and other matters of historical interest. Our very good friend, Mary-Ann Vandaveer, who very conscientiously maintains the JPSurnames web site, and has done so for several years, has been in touch to remind us that she is available to update, add, or otherwise edit the surnames which have been submitted to that site. The site is present so that JP researchers can visit and go to the surname(s) which they are researching to determine if others are researching the same names. The e-mail addresses of the other party(ies) are shown so that contacts can be made. It has been, in my view, an invaluable addition to the "tools" with which we work in the JP region. Mary-Ann also asks that if you need to update your e-mail address, please let her know *all* of the surnames which you may have posted on the site, so that she can change the address on all of them more rapidly. She can be reached at: kyjpsurnames@aol.com The site itself can be found here: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~kyjpsurnames/ Many thanks to Mary-Ann for her continuing efforts on our behalf. A reminder, too, about the searchable JP List Archives, which can be found here: http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=KYJacksonPurchase-L The Archive contains all of the postings made to the List since its inception 8 years ago, including my 2800+ data posts over that period of time. The search capabilities make it a good tool, especially for our newer subscribers. General information - FAQ's - about the JP region can be found here: http://users.arn.net/~billco/jacksonfaq1.html A little general information about the list statistics at this point: as of today, we have 723 subscribers, located in nearly every state in the US, as well as Japan, Egypt, Germany, England, Russia, and I am sure, other countries as well. Some 150 of us gathered in 2000 for the Jackson Purchase Homecoming genealogical event in Murray, in Calloway County, which remains, as far as I know, the only gathering of that size held in any location by the subscribers of any regional mail list. I may be wrong in that belief, but I have seen nothing yet to indicate to me that it is in error. We may again hold one of these conferences at some point in the future. It was fun, and, I hope, genealogically rewarding, for those of us who attended. Of the 723 subscribers, 520 are subscribed in the "mail" mode, which sends each posting out as an individual message, and 203 are subscribed in "digest" mode, which sends out a group of messages in "digest" form once a day, when postings are received. Just as a side note, in the past 6 months, there have been over 100 attempts to send spam to the JP List, and other lists which I host, and not a single one got through RootsWeb's spam filters. A good record, indeed. In the "Whatever happened to...?" category, many of you will recall that it was my intention to do some digital work on some Ballard County records to make them available on CD, as I did with the newly discovered 1853 Graves County Circuit Court Order Book G, a couple of years ago. I did proceed with that Ballard work for quite some time, but it finally became clearly apparent that digitization was simply not possible(not even close to the clarity level of the Graves Order Book work), due to the faded condition of the original records. So that one has had to be placed on indefinite hold until the records can actually be manually transcribed. I have been asked many times if I intend to digitize that other newly discovered Graves County Circuit Court order books, and my answer continues to be a conditional "Yes", but I can't give any definitive or projected date for the next volume. Nearly a year was required to put the first one out, so it is a very time intensive effort. And there are one or two new items coming up soon, I think, with which you will be pleased, and I will keep you posted on those. Finally, many of you know our very good friend, Sandi Gorin, a researcher extraordinaire for the Barren and surrounding counties area, and the host of one of our sister regional lists, the South-Central-Kentucky-L. I recently had the good fortune to find several of her published works cited in an article written by Dr. John Phillip Colletta, a nationally well known researcher, for the latest edition of The National Genealogical Society Quarterly. That is a tribute to the accuracy and impact which her many works have had on the history of the area and the families who have resided there. Later this week, I will return with a piece written many years ago by the late Judy Maupin, concerning a ghost which allegedly maintains its spirit and presence in Calloway County. -B ===========================================================================