G'day All Fellow Surname Researchers Here are a few suggestions I think it behoves all of us to use for accuracy's sake and to give other people some idea of who we are and where we live - 1. I believe that there is nothing wrong with a good old-fashioned "Hello," "G'day" and the use of person's Christian/Given name to start off; 2. standard practice in ANY group of genealogists is to put the surname in CAPITALS (and some people then prefer to place Christian/Given names after the surname like in Army rolls/ school class rolls/official records); 3. sign off mail with full name, city, state and country of residence (abbreviations are tricky because "WA" in the USA means "Washington State" but in Australia it is the abbreviation for the State of "Western Australia"). So many countries also have settlements with the same name as settlements in other countries; 4. unless you work for the Australian CIB, American FBI, British MI5 or Interpol and have a REAL need for privacy PLEASE put your e-mail address on the bottom (the crooks will get you anyhow if they want!!!!!!!) Also remember that Continental North American addresses usually do NOT have extensions like "uk," "au" on them) AND considering that most of the mail emanates from Continental North America the rest of us can only guess where you live; I believe that we all love receiving notes from people in parts of the world we are not familiar with, and that most of the people on these lists are more than willing to help out fellow researchers. However, confusion will reign unless we adopt some sort of group standard. What's more I learn heaps by reading some of each letter posted because you folks really are, collectively, a remarkable "font of knowledge." When answering I select "Reply to Author" in most cases my reply pertains to them only. Otherwise I happily share my knowledge with the rest of you researchers. The very best in your surname research - may you have as much success in finding my current-day PARKERs in Lancashire, UK. They were as excited about "finding" us in the Land of the Kangaroo as we were about finding them back in the "old country!" If you have UNCOMMON surnames I am more than happy to check my Australian White Pages 1996-7 CD for you (but I can't cut and paste names and details of them from my CD). If there are only a few names and you want to snail mail to possible Australian relatives then I will type them out and e-mail them to you. Alternatively access our Oz (= Australian) White Pages on URL http://www. whitepages.com.au A. John Parker Perth, Western Australia [email protected] Researching - PARKER in Lancashire pre 1761 McMAHON in Co. Tipperary, Ireland c1870 MAGGETTI in Canton Ticino, Switzerland, pre 1855 WESTHOVEN in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, c1860; or WESTHOFEN or WESTHOFFEN ditto -----Original Message----- From: Lon & T. Whisler <[email protected]> To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Date: Tuesday, 8 September 1998 3:27 Subject: Email at the bottom, please