Cliff posted this on the NY-Rensselaer list today and with his permission, I am passing this on.... Mindy Potts has been writing a series of historical articles about Columbia Co. for a monthly Columbia Co. newspaper called "OK Times & the Hudson River Sampler". She has kindly given me permission to post them on my website. Three articles are ready for viewing. They are about the Town of Stuyvesant, the village of Valatie, and a fascinating account of brickmaking in the county. The published titles of the articles were: Stuyvesant: A Simple Town With a Grand History Vaaltje (Little Falls) Has Quite a History Columbia County Brickmaking Combined Skill and Hard Work Vaaltje was the Dutch spelling for Valatie which has two waterfalls. This water power made Valatie an important mill town, the first mill being constructed there in the 1600s. Another 14 articles will also be put online in the near future. Mindy continues to write and have her work published, so we can look forward to reading more Columbia Co. history in the future. As part of her research for some of the articles, she interviews local people. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~clifflamere/History/StuyvesantColCo.htm http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~clifflamere/History/ValatieColCo.htm http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~clifflamere/History/BrickmakingColCo.htm As with most new webpages that I post, I am sending this email to the mailing lists for Albany, Columbia and Rensselaer Counties. There were close associations between the people in these counties, some of our ancestors moving from one to the other. Most future articles by Mindy will only be announced to the Columbia Co. mailing list. Other interested list members should check my home page under the topic History/Columbia Co. All articles should be online in the next few weeks. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~clifflamere/ Cliff -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com Professional Genealogy Research All outgoing mail virus free, scanned by Norton 2002