After just watching Mario make his return with the Pittsburgh Penguins, I switched over to the local 11 PM news to hear that we are point 3 inches away from 6th place for the snowiest December on record in Erie, this after hitting second place all time in November. Those of you in Erie know what I am talking about. The snowiest December is still 20" away which was in 1989 and although I was not here most of the time during that month, I did have a weekend or two at home and have some documented pictures. Erie is now over 86 inches of snow for the season! To keep this a little on topic, a list member of another list that I belong to posted a reminder message that this is the time of year when many people start using new computers and sometimes even get an interest in family history and join mail lists such as this one, and/or visit web sites such as Erie County (PA) Genealogy. These people for the most part are "newbies" and sometimes 'discover' already published family trees which may or may not be correct, and sometimes ask questions, or post queries that to the well experienced might seem "dumb" or off the wall. I am still a "newbie" myself as I have only been doing my own family history study for about two years. Someone else remarked that you are still a "newbie" to genealogy until you have been doing it for about 20 years! Point to make is that if you see questions or queries that might seem "not up to standard", it might be from someone who is new to either computers or genealogy and be kind. To cite an example from my own experience, my career was in messaging where in the pre e-mail days there was telex or teletype - there were no small letters - only CAPITALS. Today, when someone sends a message with all capitals, it is taken to mean that the person is SHOUTING. But for one such as myself who didn't have small letters, I only knew CAPITALS when I first had a PC with e-mail. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas or other seasonal celebration, and wishing everyone a Happy 2001 (although I am sure I will be posting more before then). Bill Klauk Millcreek Township, Erie County, PA