Carole.....great idea you put on the Screven board about having an on-line "board" meeting of those interested in Screven County. I'm sure there are others of us on the Poythress wire who will be interested besides we two. When you get the mechanics together please instruct us on how to tune in and how to participate....particularly with respect to the technology for me. I was pleased to see the great reception you got from one of the two heavy hitters of Screven genealogy: Scottie Scott. The other is John "Bob" Peavy who has been a great help to me over the years and actually ran a "BES" (Bulloch-Effingham-Screven) board of his own in the days prior to Rootsweb. Bob has dropped off the radar screen as far as I can tell but I'm hoping for his return soon. He and Scottie just about cover the waterfront down there. Re: the "Index to Screven County Original Loose Papers Office of the Ordinary", there is a pencilled notation at the top of this page "Found 7/25/2002 Screven Co. Probate Court." Having now hooked up my new printer-copier-scanner-rocket launcher I am looking at the hard copy and notice that the "list" is typed on stationery of the Department of State, Ben Fortson, Jr. I'll swear I think I even recognize that old typewriter but I suppose all ancient Underwoods all look the same. At any rate, "Mr. Ben" had that Sec. of State job for many, many years and his nose and his "grabbers" for genealogical material were legend. I sez to myself sez I: well, if the list was on Mr. Ben's stationery, surely the individual pieces of the list content made it to archives microfilm and the only thing that was probably "lost" and subsequently "found 7/25/2002" is that typed list itself. Neither Mr. Ben nor any of his sucessors that I know of would have let that material get away from them if they either had it or had access to it. And no county probate court judge or clerk would have bucked Mr. Ben if they liked their job. I'm thinking about the people you met in Screven County who were secretive about the "list". Well, maybe they do have the orginals back (or have had them all along) in their possession but I'm going to guess that somewhere along the way they got microfilmed and put in the Archives. My reason for so speculating is that I have already transcribed a couple of the wills listed on the "lost" list and I made the transcriptions straight off of Georgia Archives microfilm. The supposedly "entire" Screven County Ordinary, Estates, Records, Wills material, although on only two microfilm reels (110/9 and 37/30) and two Screven "books" (2 and 2B), wraps the period 1806 to 1902 and the "list" in question has no dates outside of that "window." My guess is that ALL of those documents are on microfilm in Atlanta (soon to be at Morrow, GA) at the Archives. I have made myself a note since the list now gives me a couple of names I must have overlooked (or not known were significant) at the time I was doing the transcribing. I'll check it the next time I go to Atlanta and report on it if I can't settle the matter even before then by contacting a friend at the Archives. Tell me a little bit more about your reception in Sylvania and where exactly did you look? Maybe I can return the favor for the rough handling they appear to have given you. Thanks. We have enough hurdles without this one. I'm beginning to have hope that this hurdle isn't there. Best, Maynard