Cyndi wrote..... >>Actually, you explained my reasoning for me. I use the term "locality" because there is no "nation" called Benelux and a site like GENUKI covers more than one nation as well (the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland). Of course, a site such as that for Federation of East European Family History Societies (FEEFHS) represents numerous nations that exist today or existed at some point throughout history in what is now Eastern Europe. Therefore the word "national" doesn't describe the contents of the list, but "locality-specific" does. In genealogy we research based on localities, not on nationalities (just ask anyone with Prussian ancestors...)<< I TAKE your point - it was just the term "locality-specific" that somehow smacked to me of Harvard Business School-type jargon which I abhor, just as I hate government civil service officialese and gobbledegook terms like "workstations" (I still call them desks) and "downsizing" (I call it giving people the sack) and "interpersonal workplace relationships" (bonking somebody in the office, we call that!). I would agree with you about genealogy often transcending nationalities and national boundaries and I can sympathise with people whose ancestry is rooted in countries that no longer exist. However, it's not so much of a problem in Britain since the last time we were successfully invaded by anybody and had our nationality seriously challenged was by a fellow called Bill of Normandy in 1066 (unless you count all those Yankee GIs and airmen in World War II who walked off with half our womenfolk!!!). You don't really hear people talking much about having Norman ancestry, since the number who can actually trace their pedigree back over 900 years to the Normans is infinitesimal. And even those who can wouldn't think of themselves as being French! Likewise, coming from Yorkshire for many generations I undoubtedly possess some Viking ancestry, but I certainly don't think of myself as being Danish or Norwegian since the likelihood of my being able to trace my ancestry back to the 8th and 9th centuries, when the Vikings arrived in Yorkshire, is absolutely zilch. Nor do we think of ourselves in the wider context of Europeans - that is an entirely political concept which Mr Blair is keen to foist onto us. Genealogically speaking, we are English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish, with influxes of Jews and Huguenots in earlier centuries and Asians and Afro-Caribbeans in more recent times. It would seem to me that the longer a people become settled in a country, then the more likely they are to think of themselves in "national" terms. Roy Stockdill Editor, The Journal of One-Name Studies The Stockdill Family History Society (Guild of One-Name Studies, FedFHS) STOCKDILL PREST YELLOW BOLTON WORSNOP GIBSON MIDGLEY BRACEWELL SHACKLETON BRADLEY MOODY in Yorkshire North & West Ridings MEAD YOUNG in Somerset, Wiltshire & Gloucestershire Web page of the Stockdill Family History Society:- http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/roystock ”Never ask a man if he comes from Yorkshire. If he does he will tell you. If he does not, why humiliate him?" - Canon Sydney Smith (scholar and humorist 1771-1845)