My apologies to you all for this mornings post. I thought it was just going to Mike. My name is Lance Groundwater, I live in Alaska. Both my mother's and father's families are/were Groundwater's from the Orkneys. One group from the Hoy area and the other from Orkney. Or so I've been told. Typing with 13 fingers has always been a snap; but, I'm sure there's no correlation. My initial interest is in some of the place names that my family is from. Places that have ceased to exist, I see. For what it's worth, our daughter is in Stromness as I write this, seeing all she can. I see in the guidelines that this is not for genealogy. That's something I'm very interested in; but, as we've done a lot of research and traced our family's back to Thag the kelp picker...there's not much of that left to do. If there are any Groundwaters out there on this list, I'd be pleased to hear from you via personal email. Later, lg

G'day Lance, Isn't' Hoy Orkney? Pat <Ohio> USA P.S. Recycled grass in the form of beef there in Orkney...... Great concept! I did notice that sheep weren't near as prevalent there as they were on Mainland Scotland. I think the Orcadians are doing something good there. I heard that the Scots get a govt. subsidy for so many sheep. Does this occur in Orkney? > Both my mother's and father's families are/were Groundwater's from the Orkneys. One group from the Hoy area and the other from Orkney. Or so I've been told. Typing with 13 fingers has always been a snap; but, I'm sure there's no correlation.