Dear All You may have spotted that I have been a little quiet in the past month. Thats because in the run up to and run down from the Christmas break I got all my mail and my family research notes into such a mess that I have been spending most of my time just trying to keep my head above water. I have now had to admit defeat. My own family lines have advanced so well in the past months, thanks mainly to these lists. For Christmas I produced a family book for my uncle - the book which would have been for my parents if they had not both died in the past year. He was absolutely delighted and it made the effort involved well worth while. Now I have decided to leave my family as it is for a month or so and see what I can do with my husbands Staffordshire lines which I havent really done anything with so far. (I dont even have birth dates for 3 of his grandparents). As well as that I need to go through all the entries in my family lines (4000+) and review all the rubbish which accumulates in there as a result of my untidy habit of scraping in notes from everywhere in case they may come in useful some day - which of course some often do. +I have lots of microfiche which havent even made it under the reader yet through lack of time. The one thing which is constantly at the back of my mind, every time I switch on the PC, is that I promised to do more MI lookups for Kirkcudbright. Can I please apologise for those I havent done and now put them to one side. I absolutely hate saying I will do something and then not doing it and I am really sorry. If anyone has any specifics they want looking up or if I owe anyone any other information then please email me off list and I will see what I can do. I think I took on too many lookups last time and Time and my Eyes and Neck couldnt keep up with the typing up. I will be back with my own family some time in March as I have a week off then which we will be spending baby- sitting my husbands grandchildren in Huddersfield. This of course is close to Rochdale so I am planning daily visits down there to the Local studies centre, cemetery etc - and maybe I can knock down some more brick walls. As soon as I am back I will resubscribe and pick up on the latest adventures of my Lancashire and Scottish families. Regards and good hunting in the meantime to everyone Joy