I would like to just make a quick additional observation about gathering data about your ancestors' siblings, etc. I was not doing that when I started, but as I intensified my genealogical search in Pennsylvania, I found a distant cousin there, who jumped in enthusiastically to help. She is an amateur, but *very good* intuitive genealogist and I have learned more from observing Lisa than from anyone else in all the years of doing this. When Lisa started sending documents pertaining to siblings of my ancestors, I dutifully put them in the notebooks, but wondered why she was doing that. *Then* I hit a snag and couldn't find any proof of the parents of one of my ancestors. From obits and censuses, though, I knew of her siblings and in an instant I knew why Lisa had done what she did. I ran to the notebook and there was a census record showing my ancestor living with a woman identified on the census as her sister...and right opposite that page was a death certificate for that sister (courtesy of Lisa) that clearly stated the sister's father and the mother's maiden name. I had filed it without even looking at that. Things such as that have happened more than in just that one instance and I have learned how valuable it is to be able to identify important events or people in my ancestors' lives by sometimes approaching their genealogy "sideways" -- through their siblings. Finally, I have also found that some of the descendants of those siblings frequently have photos! Lynne