Hello Sharon and Listers: I agree with the cross posting as my NICHOLLS research is at a complete standstill. Yesterday I wasnt able to get online at all and by midnight I figured out what was the problem - all the last minute tax filers doing it electronically! I was somewhat irritated as I pay for the service and not to be able to access is the pits!! Today I got the following from another Researcher and did indeed laugh and felt it was a good one to share with you all! THE THIRTEEN COMMANDMENTS FOR NAMES: (1) Thou shalt only name your male children: James, John, Joseph, Jonathan, Richard, Thomas or William (2) Thou shalt only name your female children: Elizabeth, Mary, Martha, Sarah or Virginia (3) Thou shalt leave NO trace of your female children. (4) Thou shalt, after naming your children from the above lists, call them by strange nicknames such as: Ike, Eli, Polly, Dolly, Sukey.---making them as difficult to trace as possible. (5) Thou shalt NOT use any middle names on any legal documents or census reports, and use only initials on all legal documents. (6)Thou shalt learn to sign all documents illegibly so that your surname can be spelled, or misspelled, in various ways: Hicks, Hicks, Hix, Hixe, Hucks, Kicks (7) Thou shalt, after no more than 3 generations, make sure that all family records are lost, misplaced, burned in a court house fire, or buried so that NO future trace of them can be found. (8) Thou shalt propagate misleading legends, rumors, & vague innuendo regarding your place origination. (A) you may have come from : England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales....or Iran. (B) you may have American Indian ancestry of the______tribe...... (c) You may have descended from one of three brothers that came over on a ship from______ (9) Thou shalt leave NO cemetery records, or headstones with legible names. (10) Thou shalt leave NO family Bible with records of birth, marriages, or deaths. (11) Thou shalt ALWAYS flip thy name around. If born James Albert, thou must make all the rest of thy records in the names of Albert, AJ, JA, AL, Bert, Bart, or Alfred. (12) Thou must also flip thy parent's names when making reference to them, although "Unknown" or a blank is an acceptable alternative. (13) Thou shalt name at least 5 succeeding generations of males, and dozens of their cousins with identical names in order to totally confuse researchers. AMEN! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>