Ancestry Quick Tip Jamboree Free Blank Maps I recently read a tip regarding using government mapping sites and books to find blank maps to plot your own ancestor's migration paths. One suggestion was to make your own by tracing a map out of a book. But once in a while you have to think outside the genealogy box and consider what may be available from sources outside of those, which are commonly used by genealogists. Doing a web search for "blank maps," I came upon a wealth of sites offering free blank maps. One such site has blank maps in printable versions of continents, countries, and U.S. counties. This site is aimed towards helping school children but is perfect for genealogists too. It is called geography.about.com. If you want a wall-size map, you can take it to Kinko's or some other copying service and have it blown up. Diana Thornton Beaumont, Tex. Family Letter of Remembrance On the first anniversary of my 89-year-old mother's death, my brother and I exchanged e-mails about her and the house she lived in for 56 years. The two actually went hand-in-hand with our memories. I put a photo of the house on a Microsoft Word document along with our emails and sent it to her fourteen grandchildren. I asked them if they'd like to contribute to this. Thus began a beautiful walk down memory lane with little tidbits of seemingly insignificant events of long ago. More photos were added to the avalanche of nostalgia. Together we created a wonderful document. Chris Snyder Marlborough, Mass. Print Preview Function Saves Paper Whenever I need to print one of the articles from the "Ancestry Daily News," I use the printer-friendly version, but first I use the print preview feature of my browser (most of the popular ones have this). That way I know how many pages will be printed. If I find that the last page to be printed would only have the copyright information, I exit the preview and select edit on the tool bar and select all from the drop down menu. Then I copy the information, in its entirety to MSWord. It usually scales the article down a page, saving paper. This also gives you the advantage of being able to adjust the size of the text, if you need to. Lisa Troy, Mich. Lightning out of the Blue Although I am no longer living in Florida, which is the lightning capital of the USA, I still unplug my computer and everything that concerns the computer when I hear an approaching thunderstorm. I am often reminded of an experience I had in the days before computers while I was in Miami, Florida, about an hour before an expected afternoon rain. One sunny afternoon, I was sitting on the couch watching TV and I heard thunder, although the sky was blue with a few white fluffy clouds. Before I could get up, lightning struck the transformer behind our home. As a result, everything was fried in the TV. (I wasn't too upset because I wanted a color TV.) I was always glad that I was a little slow getting off of the couch (by a few seconds) or I probably wouldn't be here to share my story about safeguarding computers. So, be extra careful while unplugging appliances during an approaching thunderstorm. Guess this is the kind of experience from which the old saying about "Lightning out of the Blue" originated. Jackie (Sheafer) Cramer El Paso, Tex.