I have had much luck over the years using the internet to try and find hitherto unconnected cousins with a particular surname by sending out letters to anyone with the intended last name after looking up the surname in superpages.com for an applicable town. For example, I recently sent about 24 letters to nearly all the Howards listed at superpages.com for the Fulton and Oswego localities in Oswego County, NY. I had my first response from a fifth cousin of mine (we grew up twenty years and all of seven miles apart) within 24 hours of sending out the letters. While I understand that this is not entirely different than something like telemarketing for relatives, I find that when I send a letter (as opposed to calling or emailing), people are excited to respond. I did the same for a more obtuse situation (the Evans family in Abergavenny, Wales), where everyone and their brother was an Evans. I had no confirmed "hits", but I had great connections made with people who actually weren't related or genealogists. One offer to do research by a non-related non-genealogist put me on a very productive path. Phone calls made to the residents of the house where my great-grandfather's family lived in the 1880s have enlightened me greatly about the house, the family, and Wales. I thought that I would post this technique here since I have never heard of its use before (perhaps it was more common before the days of the internet). Maybe others will have good luck with it! Aaron Howard son of David Thomas Howard, son of Donald Holbrook Howard, son of James Seth Howard, son of Samuel Preston Howard, son of Preston George Howard, son of Cyrus Howard, all who lived in Fulton, NY. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software