I would like to put my two cents in here in praise of all the DAR ladies who have done so much historical transcription over the years. Their work appears in libraries all over the United States. Legions of genealogists and family researchers have been helped by them. Preserving historical records is something that the DAR takes very seriously. I am a descendant of three early Albany/Rensselaer Co. families...Weatherwax, Francisco and VanDerCook. I am also an adoptee. As soon as I was reunited with my birthmother in 1983, I quickly learned that researching my roots was not going to be an easy task. Although the family still resides in the Michigan county that my great-great grandfather originally settled in, he died in 1867 at a relatively young age. My great-great grandmother died five years later. If there were ever any family records, they disappeared as the children from my great-great grandmother's three marriages dispersed...seemingly to the four winds! It took me from 1983 to 1987 to get the family origins pinned down to Upper Albany/Rensselaer Co., NY. Needless to say, it was very frustrating work. In 1987, my husband and I were finally able to travel to New York. An afternoon spent at the New York State Library in Albany provided a crucial turning point in my research. If it hadn't been for a DAR survey of the Old Cooksborough Cemetery, I would never have located the burial sites of my Revolutionary War ancestor...not to mention the interments of many other ancestors who lie at rest in that historic old burying ground! Did I find mistakes on that survey? You betcha! But the boost my research got from that particular piece of work alone was incredible. I also found DAR transcriptions of the Gilead Lutheran and Schagticoke Reformed Dutch church records to be invaluable. My ability to document my line as a whole was greatly aided by the fact that an original Weatherwax Family Bible was transcibed for the DAR in 1931 and made available to me through the DAR Family Bible Records on Microfilm. Although this particular transcription contained one HUGE error, my cousin's husband got around it very neatly when he researched her family. Happily, the original bible just recently resurfaced and I now have a color copy of the pages that confirm our research to be correct. I was successful in using these DAR transcriptions because I checked, rechecked...then checked again. One thing needs to be remembered: These are NOT primary records! Any genealogical researcher worth his or her salt should know that they need to take ANYTHING like this with a proverbial grain of salt. Please remember that the internet is a very new development. Nevertheless, people have been doing genealogy...GOOD genealogy...for generations. It is easy to criticize when you have the newest, up-to-date technological marvel at your disposal. DAR transcribed records have been of immense value to tens of thousands of genealogical researchers over the years. For this reason, this transcription work (and the women who do it) should be approached with the greatest respect always. It wasn't so terribly long ago that they were the only show in town. Oh, yes. Despite the fact that I am an adoptee and most of the records I had at my disposal were DAR transcriptions, I was accepted for membership into the society in 1991. And, yes, the documentation for my lineage was...and remains...totally correct! Linda Wilbur, B.S. Gene-Us Genealogical Research Homer, Michigan