It has always been my understanding that commercial advertisements were not allowed on Rootsweb lists. Will the list administrator please clarify? Sue Susan M. Hillier Roe Seal Beach, CA SueMHR@aol.com Susan, Did it ever occur to you this had been allowed for long time, now in 7th year - as long as there are NO mention of money in message, just announcements of any new additions. It is up to the ones who browse through to decide for themselves. And if you insist on very narrow view, then why are there Ancestry.com taglines in almost every Rootsweb mailing list? And there would be NO USGenWeb Project, no Rootsweb, no GenForum, etc because they all require $$$ to maintain, to acquire records to transcribe, so forth. There is no such as FREE genealogy. Never from day one. (You're paying AOL monthly fee to access through AOL.) And secondly, you didn't squawk when I post same thing on MA-Mendon list. Not even on RIProv-L because YOU knew you stand to find more information relating to the Cook(e) and Aldrich families. You and I have SAME Aldrich lines. Neither did you squawk about 3 weeks ago when I notified of additional several volumes of indexes relating to Otsego County after long absence. Deny the knowledge of such resources to others is extreme unfair to others because there are many loose bricks in these resources they can utilize to break through their brick walls. And along with every order I send out email message urging the customers to transcribe and share with others through local websites, Archives and mailing lists. So far I can assure you, less than 10 percent do. So who are real losers ? It is the ones you don't want to know about the resources. I've run into a good number who utilized my site to prepare their research trips and for this I am happy for them. Then there are those who are unable to make trips anywhere themselves for various reasons and can't afford costly research fees. Did it ever occur to you the costs in New York is getting more expensive - $75.00 per record mandated and allowed by the New York state law. Got to get busy uploading more than 40 transcripts of will records relating to New York. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ny/recentupload.htm listing a great deal of records that had been transcribed for NY archives. http://www.sampubco.com/wills/recentupload.htm showing lists of will records that had been added beside New York. Jan Cortez who is Coordinator of Otsego County is authorized to have any copies I personally create be copied from Archives to add to Otsego County if she wish and she also knows she has to contact other submitters of Otsego county-related information for permissions to add these records, too. Otherwise she would have to fork over $$ just to get raw copies to transcribe. So there's nothing that is truly free. And lastly, I have zero tolerance for anyone who try to restrict access by others, preventing them from finding the clues and sources. W. David Samuelsen