hi Group, I just got home from a hard day at work , I have read my mail , and now wish to have my Say ..... to Pat , apology accepted .... Now I would like to tell you who I am , and what I have , I am 64 years old , I work in Constuction as a Special Inspector which is a very stressful job , I am responsible for the ' Life Safety ' of many many people , I can not make a Mistake !!! ..... Doing my Genealogical Research is my release from the tensions of the job .... I have been doing my ' family history ' for over 10 years , And have most of my lines as far back as 1500s , So I am not a " Newbie " ..... I live in the Puget Sound region of Washington state and am blessed with having 7 FHC`s with in a 60 mile radius of my home , Plus 3-4 Libraries full of ' books ' dealing with ' stuff ' , And the Seattle branch of NARA , So I can usally find what I need to know at one of these places ...... I also moniter 25 mailing list on a daily basis spending 3-4 hours most every day reading and writing E-mail , AND I DO LOOK UP`s , But it is my choice who I help and when I do it , MOST of the time it is done OFF LIST , If I really think I can help somebody with a problem I am happy to do so I have spent uncounted hours / dollars looking for a record and mailing out copies to people , only asking for my postage cost , And I still find time to do my own work , But do ask a question once in awhile on a list , If I know someone will have the info I need , I did stumble around the first couple of years , Untill I realized just about any thing I needed to know about Genealogy Research was available in a ' book ' at a Library ..... Which It appears from many of the posts on the mailing lists a lot of people have not learned yet , ...... Nuff said , Phil