Cher, Our last Pedigree came out last month (I think that was when....someone can correct me, I'm sure). I read it cover to cover as soon as it arrived. If you only been a member for a short time then I hope you will give at least a little while longer to find a connection. I'll try to take your issues one by one and I'm going to clip the older messages out to save space (hopefully, that is ok). Asking questions until one understands is certainly ok. I'm sure we can always do things better. 1. I'm so glad you are sending your information to Barrie for publication. I do this often and enjoy sharing immensely. I'll look forward to reading what you have done. You are correct in mentioning that there is still tons of information out there that has been gleened by previous researchers. Much of that is included in previous Pedigree issues. Bee Holmes and many others collected and shared information with each other prior to the organization of the Association. 2. We will miss you. Perhaps someday. 3. Perhaps it should be easier to start a new group than it presently is. Someone else should probably answer this question. I will say that I always announce my group as "Abel died 1819 Al" as opposed to "Group 11". You could go ahead and put an appropriate tag of your choosing on your group and begin that way. I tend to oversimplify everything and do things pretty much the way I want. Another consideration anyway. 4. DNA studies are still very new. Nick Penington has done a fabulous job on this study. Instead of being jealous, I got a Pennington male from my line to do the study so we can be involved. So far, it has not helped my group much but someday.... hopefully. In some groups there are few or no male Penningtons to study. Now that is a problem. I believe Nick just referred to that as "daughtered out". 5. On the webpage, I'll let Gene speak to that. While I do have a webpage of my own, I'm certainly not a whiz at it and don't pretend to know the complexities. By the way Gene Pennington is a devoted volunteer for PRA and tries very hard to keep the webpage up to date. He welcomes suggestions and may or may not be able to improve on some aspects. You certainly haven't annoyed me and probably noone else. Just please remember that most of us are volunteers and have other jobs that pay the rent so everything is done in our own time. Regards, Shirley ----- Original Message ----- From: "Spaulding" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 4:07 PM Subject: Re: [Pennington-L] OK, I'm confused about PRA family groups. > Hi. Shirley. Okey Dokey....let's keep going and maybe this is going to get > through my thick skull. I think I joined after the mailing of the > Pennington Pedigree so that is probably why I had no idea what was going > on. Taking my issues one by one: > > 1. I will send my research to Barrie Petty so that it can be circulated to > the non-computer users. I do realize that there are tons of those > folks. And perhaps worse yet, my experience is that they are sometimes > older folks with TONS of information that is useful to all of us and no way > for us to get to them. > > 2. Reunions: I'd love to come, but I think this is nearly impossible for > me. I can barely make it to my own closer family reunions and they, tiny > and infrequent as they are, are my first choice in such things. Broader > Pennington reunions are great, but not much help to me. > > 3. Groups: I have to agree with Barb that most research takes place > inside this various groups and not much outside them. Or at least it has > been to this point. When everything comes online in February, that will > change, theorectically. I said I offered to start a group. I know Gene > told me something about this, but it does not appear to be an easy task. > > 4. DNA studies: Well what can I say ladies. For any of us who have > female connections to this line and no male Penningtons, this is virtually > useless to us. We just don't have the right stuff to use it. And whilst I > wish the guys well, I am jealous. I wish I could prove my heritage so > easily with some DNA work. By the way, I still harbor some misgivings > about all DNA stuff that is goign on in genealogy. There are lots of > questions yet to be answered about how to use this info. Tricky questions > regarding ethics and such. > > 5. Web Page: Now I'm really going to put my foot in it. I think the PRA > webpage needs help. I realize that this is all volunteers and since I am > an officer in a couple volunteer organizations (not genealogical), I > recognize that resources are always thin. That being said, it simply is > not easy to understand. Some issues: > * Web Queries: rather than having them organized by month and year and > therefore requiring somebody to wade through them, why not let them just > exist as a long chain as many other such queries pages do. It is FAR > easier to scan a long chain of things than opening and reviewing and > closing each monthly set. I can scan quickly. I've never gone through all > the PRA ones because I just don't have that many hours. > * Family Groups: if PRA is serious about getting lots of groups going > and you should be because there are a ton of us who do not fit into the > existing groups, then you need to do this in a manner that encourages > formation. How about an online form requesting a new group that can be > submitted and some kind of specified and easily understood way to > accomplish this task. Telling people to contact Gene and then providing > all that info. about the way groups must be named and all is intimidating > at best, discouraging at worst. Instead of 34 groups, I'd like to see > more than 100....whatever number it takes to get as much information about > these lines available as possible. That is how we are going to connect the > dots to each other. > * Research: I don't expect anyone from any group to do my research. I > expect to do it myself. I also expect to gather up whatever I can about > Pennington's (like the Greenmount line that is not mine) and share > it. That being said. HOW? Give me some forms to fill out online. Give > me some easily explained directions for submitting info. > * General Comment: I just find the PRA web page very difficult to get > around. In some ways it provides way too much information about some > things and then gives nearly no exact directions on others. If there isn't > a web page committee, there needs to be one. > OK, so now that I have annoyed most of the PRA world. You may ask, who the > heck do I think I am. Why a Penington, of course. > Regards, Cher