I am sending this message to publicly express my sincere appreciation to Karen Mabry Rice for her incredible work as the manager-owner of the USGenWeb Union Parish Louisiana Archives. She is constantly working to improve and update the archives, and the information she has collected, organized, and cataloged is unbelievable! I'm only 36, but I remember quite well the "old days" when the only way to do genealogical research in Union Parish was to travel to a library or to Farmerville, spend hours on a microfilm machine that often did not work properly, sometimes having to wait for a turn on the microfilm reader, bother with parking tickets at the Farmerville courthouse, etc. But today, with Karen's help, we can view the 1850-1860 censuses online already, and soon it looks like we'll be able to view the 1870-1920 censuses from the archives page; this is in addition to the succession index as well as numerous other records. Furthermore, I have not come across any other parish page that has nearly as many records as does Union Parish's. Even the parishes with large Louisiana cities - Orleans, Ouachita, or East Baton Rouge Parishes - none of them compare to ours. Of course many thanks should go to all those who contribute their time and energy in preparing records for Karen to post. But I do not think anyone else could come close to managing this page as efficiently or as professionally as does Karen. So, I hope others who have a deep interest in the early history of Union Parish will join me in thanking Karen for all of her work and her contributions to Union Parish genealogy. Please keep up the work!! Tim Hudson