> Nice letter. I see these kinds of requests all the > time. These are the > people who want somebody else to do all their work > for them and the people least likely to > share their work. > > I especially "enjoy" the ones who mention that they > are leaving for Poland > in a week and need > the information quickly. I haven't seen one of > those here, but I see them > on Irish lists all the time. > > If you don't mind, I'll borrow your text, modify it > and occasionally use it > on other lists. > > Ray Marshall > Minneapolis You are more than welcome to use it as I borrowed the idea from someone else and keep it on my drive to use from time to time. It's not unusual for someone who has just started to research their ancestors to not know what to do. With the internet, it's the first place people will start. They will initially find what seems to be a lot of information (SSDI, Rootsweb, Ellis Island, Cindy's List, etc.), but eventually realize that not everything is there and then don't know what to do. Of course, what is next is good old fashion research - digging through records and microfilms. That's when genealogy societies and reference books come in handy! Many people are surprised to see how many records of our Polish ancestors are available. Because of the World Wars, many people think that "all the records were destroyed". But that's not true. The parish my grandfather came from has records going back to 1593! That's unusual, but many parishes have records back to the 1700's. It is my understanding that doing Irish genealogy is actually worse than Polish because there are fewer records available. Good luck, Cynthia PGSA Chicago __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail