Hi Mike, I am posting this to the list as you requested and also sending a copy to you personally. I just read your posting to the Berkeley County List. I hope my letter to you didn't cause you to consider giving up the Berkeley County Site. You are doing a wonderful job and I really like the way the new site looks. My reason for starting my site is very simple. It is basically for the same reasons you took over the USGenWeb site. I have lived here for going on 25 years but I am from PA and that is where all of my family originated. Someone in the counties where my family is from, did the same thing you and I are doing. They put up as much genealogy info as possible and it helped me considerable, so I wanted to give something back from where I live because there is so much info available. I also love writing and maintaining web pages. I work in a place where I have a lot of down time and that is what I do for a good part of the day. When the Berkeley site was up for adoption, I also put in for it. After you took it over, I contacted you about doing some research for the site. I didn't have time then as my children where all still at home, and my own research took up most of my free time (I didn't work at that time). Now my children are all married and I have more time on my hands than I sometimes know what to do with. My own research is basically at a stand still until I can either make a trip up north or spend the money to have the records sent to me. When I found the county site for the American Local History Network and The American History and Genealogy Project where available, I jumped at the chance to take them over. I really enjoy going through the cemeteries and photographing them and spending time at the county courthouses (all three counties). I don't want to be in competition with your site. I think genealogy is a shared experience no matter where you live and the more you can share, the richer life becomes. The other reason I am working the cemeteries is, I contacted Mildred Hood, bought her cemetery book and her consent to update her information. She has helped me locate cemeteries that I knew nothing about and gave me ideas on how to do it. I am also adding the cemeteries that she either missed or where not in operation at the time and adding pictures of each headstone. I put them on the internet in hopes that they would help others in their research. I have several contacts for cemeteries that are on private properity and hope (when the weather turns cold and the snakes are gone) that I will be able to photographic cemeteries at Alcoa and some of the plantation cemeteries that are now located on the navel weapon station. I would really like to work together with you on this massive project instead of feeling like we are in competition with each other. I have tried to watch your site and work on the cemeteries that you haven't done so more will be available to other researchers. I, like you, would like to have the best site I can for the organizations my site represents. There are many county sites (both USGenWeb and others) that don't get changed or added to for years and for people doing research in those counties, it is very aggravating and frustrating. I also do not have any submitters right now so am having to do all the research for the site myself with the help of my daughter and a friend. I am willing to share the information that I have and hope that others are willing to do the same. The more places the information can be found on the internet, the more accessable it is to researchers of Berkeley County. -- Ginny Magee The Genealogy Attic http://www.thegenealogyattic.com SC Tri-County Genealogy http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~tga *********************************************************************** BISHOP, BROOKS, BUCK, CANFIELD, COGSWELL, DODGE, EDWARDS, ELLIOTT, FITCH, GARRISON, HINES, HOUGHTAYLEN, KEELER, KIERSTEDE, LEWIS, NORTHROP, REESE, SIGAFOOS, TERRELL, TERRILL, THOMPSON, WARNER ***********************************************************************