I was referring to members of the African-American community. I have read somewhere that interest in genealogy among blacks greatly increased after Roots was aired. It was not as prevalent before, nor were the white researchers who were transcribing records concerned much with black genealogy. I speak of Edgecombe/Eastern N.C. (think segregated!); I have no idea about other areas of the country. The examples I gave before were the Williams and Griffin books from the 1950s; these ladies, while making a great contribution to Edgecombe genealogy, pretty much ignored records dealing with blacks. Traci >Genealogy was very actively pursued before *Roots*... the book/program >*Roots* introduced the concept to those who did not have interest in >the >subject which is also beneficial for all of us who share that >interest. "Local history is not just local history but human history, world history. The information that you write down, the letters and maps you keep, these are the drippings of the human spirit and distillings of a man doing his job." --Paul Green _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp