Kevin and all, I can't remember all of the specifics, but as I recall, all I did was call the Library to make an inquiry about Brooke's files. The person I spoke with was familiar with them. I explained to her that it was my understanding that the Library had some strict access rules and I wanted to know what arrangements I could make to view the files since I was then planning a research trip to Virginia and Maryland. She informed me that there were no such rules on the files and that they could be viewed anytime. She also said that if I could identify particular items or sections of the files, that photocopies could be made and sent to me. With that, I simply asked if I could get photocopies made of the section pertaining to Rappahannock County. She made a check and informed me that the section was quite large (about 200 pages or so) and also incorporated Essex County. I shot the works and told her I would like the entire section. I don't recall how much I paid at the time, but I'm guessing it was between .10 and .25 per page. Your absolutely right about not needing to what for LDS to microfilm if you would just like to obtain portions of the files. However, it would be quite a task to coordinate any real effort to post the entire contents. Not impossible, just difficult. On the other hand, Rappahannock County is probably one of the bigger sections (I would think). At 200 pages and with as slow as I type it would take me months and many postings to get it all posted. But we WOULD BE ABLE to work around that if we could organize ourselves with a large number of volunteers. Using Rappahannock County as an example, with 20 volunteers willing to transcribe 10 pages each, the job for that portion of the project could be done very quickly. Even I could type up 10 pages with a day or two's effort... One approach might be to designate each of these volunteers using a numbering system, such as BPP Rappahannock County 1658-1664, BPP Rappahannock County 1664-1680, BPP Rappahannock County 1680-1720, etc. "BPP" being a useful search term that could be used later (Brooke Payne Project)... That way, when posts are made to the list, we would also be indexing the sections by date. Therefore, when someone wished to view the contents of Brookes file for Rappahannock County, all they would need to do would be to visit the List Archives and run a search using the keyword "BPP" along with whatever County they are interested in. In this case, a search would be made on "BPP Rappahannock County." The search should turn up all of the files posted with the subject lines: BPP Rappahannock County 1658-1664, etc., allowing them to narrow down their search by a range of years. In effect, we could do that for the entire contents. But it would depend on Volunteerism. A couple of people trying to do this themselves would be taking on a huge task. Even with my hypothetical 20, it would be large. In other words, the more the merrier! The biggest problem, apart from organizing the volunteers needed, would be obtaining permission from the Library to do use the records. Right across the front of each of my pages is stamped: "Unless permission is granted, neither this copy or the words on it may be: reproduced in any form, used by an unauthorized person, or placed in the collection of any institution or individual. Under the provisions of the Copyright Laws of the United States (17USC107), this single copy was produced for purposes of "private study, scholarship, or research" from the material in the Manuscripts Department, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, 22901." It might be argued that any such project would be for the benefit of "private study, scholarship, or research," as who else would make use of the information? If they won't agree to it being placed on Rootsweb as part of the projects they support, perhaps they would go for the idea of getting it all in electronic form for their own use to be placed on the Internet similar to the "Colonial Records Project" at the Library of Virginia. I don't see much difference. If they wouldn't agree to anything along these lines, perhaps it would at least help out the LDS in their effort and get that moving along. Regards, Patrick Payne At 06:38 PM 04/12/2002 +0000, katatty@socket.net wrote: >Dear List: > I was working my way through some e-mail I had not yet gotten to when I saw >one suggesting that copies of Col. Payne's papers can be obtained from UVA. > This is the first I've heard that copies of portions of Col. Payne's papers >can be obtained from UVA. How did you go about doing this? What did it cost? >I'd dearly love to get a copy of his Rockingham Co. folder, as well as a few >others. More to the point, if UVA will sell copies, then we need not wait for >LDS to microfilm. We can simply obtain copies as we need them and post or >otherwise share the material for other researchers. >Kevin Thompson >katatty@socket.net >