>Since I will be there during the holiday weekend, are there "Don't Miss" >sites or museums that I should definately include? I'm a bit confused. You wrote on Friday 10/11 and said "next weekend." The current weekend is being celebrated as the holiday in Mass. this year. At any rate, whenever you come to Essex County, the important thing is to pick some places ahead of time and call ahead to check when they are open. Most research libraries are open limited hours because of budget constraints, and you don't want to arrive on the day they're closed. A source that is often overlooked (even by the locals) is the special collections area of the Haverhill Public Library. There's decent parking right next to the building. The Special Collections is on the third floor (there's an elevator up as well as stairs). The collection of genealogical and local history materials is excellent, and you can find maps there, too (very helpful since the boundaires of Salisbury and Amesbury shifted constantly in that period. Keep in mind that at that time Newbury encompassed what is now Newburyport). Also, unlike many places, the Haverhill library is open at least part of most weekends. Call ahead to verify. While you have them on the line, ask for phone numbers for the Newbury and Newburyport H istorical Societies, another excellent soure, and the Newburyport Library, ditto. A point about geography: rte 495 connects most of the towns in northern Essex County and enables you to get quickly from one to the other. So while Haverhill may look farther from Newbury, Amesbury, and Salisbury than you'd like, it's actually just a matter of zipping up and down 495. The highway more or less parallels the Merrimack River from Lowell to the coast. And the river is what connected everyonein those parts back in the old days. Btw, a good place to eat with wonderful views of the harbor is Michael's Harborside in Newburyport. Or ask for suggestions at whatever library you're in. I beg the listowner's indulgence for mentioning this point, but even the most serious historian must stop to eat and rest one's mind, and it's such a disappointment to waste one's money on lousy food. And if you look out on the harbor, you get a very good idea of what the town must have been like and how easy it was, in some respects, to get to other places. The Haverhill Publicj Library web site is at: http://www.haverhillpl.org/ Francine Nicholson _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com