Thanks all who responded to my .mdb query. Unfortunally I so not have Microsoft Access or the $279.00 to buy the prog. Would anybody, who has Access, be willing to open these files and see if they can be converted to a text or Excel file(I can read this). Unfortunatly my friend in Switz. is on vacation in Italy (nice huh?) and won't be back until late Feb. so I have no way to contact him. The files are abt. 100kb each, only two of them and contain family data from the 1700's. I scanned them thru Norton's Anti Virus 2000 (updated sigs.) and they are clean. One has my 4th g-gradfather, Sylvester MAHRER of which I have been searching a loooooong time for so needless to say I'm very anxious to see these files. Thanks all for any help. Tom Schmidt PS: These files also contain a load of KAUFMANN family data from Mo"hlin and will share any info.