I have agreed to be the listowner of the STEARNS mailing list, so feel free to post messages about STEARNS genealogy to your heart's content. I should be able to keep this up for quite some time. My name is Barbara Combs and I live in Eugene, Oregon. My STEARNS ancestor is Hannah STARNS, also spelled STEARNS in some places. She was born 4 Aug. 1747 according to the family wisdom. I have no idea where the exact date came from. In 1775, she married Joseph BENNETT. They lived in Virginia. Hannah died 18 Mar. 1814 in Harrison County. Handwritten notes by someone looking into the family history in the 1800s indicate that Hannah was probably of German ancestry. I understand that this list covers both the German and the English STEARNS families, and I am quite happy to continue it that way. Just some reminders about good "netiquette" that apply to the list: Please don't post "thank you" messages to the list, or off-topic messages that do not relate to genealogy, like the dreaded internet charges thread or the even more dreaded virus alerts, which more often than not are hoaxes. The FCC has placed information about internet policies on its web page at www.fcc.gov. My favorite site for virus information is www.datafellows.com. Please use these sites, and any others where the topics are relevant, rather than filling STEARNS researchers' mailboxes with messages that they didn't bargain for when they joined the list. In the coming weeks, I will be reviewing the many duties of a listowner and may send other communications, but I will try to keep it brief. In the meantime, I am pleased to be here and may we all find new generations this year! ... Friends come and go, but relatives tend to accumulate. --- � Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 �