Friday June 27 is the last day to submit your name to NASA to have it included on a microchip that will be sent into orbit around the Moon later this year. You can also print a certificate that confirms that your name was included in this unique event. Over a million names have been submitted so far. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/main/index.html I feel certain that the list of names will survive into the future and will be made available to the public. So, does the event have any genealogical significance? Will our descendants see the list two hundred years from now? You are only allowed to submit your first and last name. For genealogy, it hardly seems that it is worth it. How would a future person know whether it was you or someone with an identical name? So, I have been thinking about how to improve the odds that a future relative will know they were seeing my name. The first and last name fields will accept a seemingly limitless number of characters. It accepts spaces, commas, hyphens, etc. I am thinking about entering the following for myself: Clifford William Lamere Albany,NY I decided against a space before the state abbreviation. I avoided a comma at the end of my surname. A woman may want to include her maiden name, but using a hyphenated name like Smith-Jones (where Smith is the maiden name) may mean that future relatives who don't know your maiden name will be searching for Jones. Perhaps something like this would work. Mary Elizabeth Jones (Smith) Miami,FL If in the future they use search engines of the type that we have today, a descendant may not find me (they will be searching for a first name only, not my first and middle name). But, without the greater amount of information I will supply, they wouldn't have known whether the simple two name entry was mine or not. So, I will take a chance that the future search system will allow people to find my name. And, I will use a system that will print with a reasonable name on the certificate. Having been an earth science teacher who taught about the moon, I like the idea of having my name on a microchip orbiting the moon. As a genealogist, I would like to think that a future relative will find my name and know it is mine. If you think of something better or more logical to submit to NASA, please tell us about it. Cliff Lamere ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~