Hi All While not at all ready for Christmas I have managed to do my online card which I would like to share with you all. You can see it at: www.rowberry.org/xmas06.html My best wishes to all of you for this holiday season, and also for the coming year, both in your researches and your personal lives. I also have some news of the ROWBERRY One-Name Study. Although I have not had much time to devote to it this year, what with selling and buying houses, moving and getting the new house and B&B up and running, the ROWBERRY One-Name Study continues to grow. Thanks to all the generous donations, before, during and after the last Family Gathering in 2005 we have been able to purchase all the modern "mystery" certificates. Most of the events on them have been now added to their correct trees, although there still remain a few mysteries even with the certificates! And then, with the complete indexing of the UK census 1841-1901 on Ancestry, many of the smaller R trees have been linked back into one of the larger main trees. In the light of this success I feel that now is an excellent time to begin a ROWBERRY Y DNA Project to see if we can link up some more of the trees. So I have started a ROWBERRY Group DNA Project with FTDNA - you can read more about it, and apply for a Y DNA test kit at: http://www.familytreedna.com/surname_join.asp?code=C62864&special=true To start the ball rolling I have ordered a test kit for my cousin, my nearest living male relative, for his Christmas present. So if there are any ROWBERRY/RUBERYs (or other Rs) or GUMMERY/GOMERYs (or other Gs) out there I do hope that you will consider participating and encourage any relations who might be interested to join in also - it would be the best Christmas present that you could give me! A full list of surname variants covered by the Group can be found on the website. And for those of you asking why the name GUMMERY is included see my own website at: www.rowberry.org/research.html This tells the story of my research into my own family with my own family tree. Here you will find out why I should really be doing a GOMERY One-Name Study as well, and why my closest living relative in Herefordshire today is called GUMMERY! By April 2008 I hope enough people will have participated to show some interesting and significant results. Therefore I have booked the Hundred House Hotel for the next Family Gathering for the weekend of 18th - 20th April 2008 (note NOT 2007!) and it would be wonderful if you could be there to share it with us. Please make a note in your diary now! Hope to see you there! Happy Christmas! Polly Polly Rubery List admin: [email protected] A genealogy and local history list covering the Counties of Brecon, Hereford, Monmouth, Shropshire, Stafford and Worcester. [email protected] A genealogy and local history list covering the County of Hereford [email protected] ROWBERRY/RUBERY ONS - GOONS #278 [email protected] http://www.rowberry.org Webmaster for the Herefordshire Family History Society http://www.rootsweb.com/~ukhfhs/index.html