Several months ago, I was part of a series of queries about what might be on the newly advertised CD collection of Western European Vital Records from the FHC. No one really knew and the description when it did come out was not particularly useful. Ever hopeful, I ordered them and, aafter a few hours of playing with them, would really like to send them back. I am hoping someone can tell me I am wrong. However, here is my first impression. 1. One concern of mine and also of others was whether there would be records that were not already on the IGS. We all hoped that to be the case. It does not look that was to me as every collection of records has a Film number next to it. 2. It is only a very limited selection of Films. For example, for Kirchheimbolanden in the Pfalz there is only one or perhaps a few of the many Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed films that were put on the CD. 3. It's hard to draw any conclusions for Hesse-Nassau as there are records for only four villages and only one of them is for before the 19th century. Of course, this simply parallels the scarcity of IGI records for Hesse when compared to the Pfalz or Rhineland. 4. As you might expect from the collection title, "Vital Records," it is heavily weighed to the 19th century. From my perspective, this severely limits its usefulness. 5. I tried to search for about 40 of the individuals on my 1000 individual genealogy and found NONE of them. Has anyone else looked into the collection? As I doubt I can get my money back, I'd like to be convinced that the CDs might be useful. Rob Hausman ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Robert E. Hausman hausman@bu.edu www.familytreemaker.com/users/h/a/u/Robert-E-Hausman/index.html HAUSMANN, ROUSSELET, HEERE, LAUBER, LATUS