At 02:09 PM 2/11/99 -0500, you wrote: >Listing related names and states to the Thomas sounds like a fine idea, but >I also think we might want to add date ranges, i.e., bef. 1850, and so on. > "Hello again Cousins!" Perhaps I might be able to suggest a better alternative to this action which would have only a limited exposure to the THOMAS Family Mail List and then become part of the THOMAS Family Mail List Archives! That alternative would be utilization of the GenConnect THOMAS Family Surname Boards also served by Rootsweb. Indexing for posts made to the GenConnect Surname Boards is made available through Surname Helper! http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/Thomas http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/ThomasBibl http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/ThomasBios http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/ThomasDeed http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/ThomasObits http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/ThomasPens http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/ThomasWill While I do not personally object to a well-thought out query that lists the information you have cited above, I do have qualified reservation for merely listing a series of surnames that are nothing more than a list of surnames. Should everyone put themselves in the position of someone searching for a particular surname within the THOMAS Family Mail List Archives, and imagine the time that might be involved in retrieving archived posts in search of a series of surnames within previous THOMAS Family Mail List posts going back to June of 1996, and possibly retrieving no further information for your all your effort than just finding a citation of the surnames for which you are searching. I am inclined to believe that we might all further the cause of genealogical research if we were to resolve to make all our posts as informative as possible when posting to the THOMAS Family Mail List. I for one would very much like to see a post exemplifying a suggested listing format for this effort should you wish all 600 subscribers to the THOMAS Family Mail List to take part. I also do hope that all will exercise good judgement in realizing that should everyone begin doing this, and posting same within a very short time, quite a goodly number of our subscribers might choose to unsubscribe rather than be deluged with an onslaught of posts to the THOMAS Family Mail List, especially so should no more meaningful information be included in most other than just a listing of surnames! We should also recognize that when replying to any such posts that are made to reply to the originator of the post, rather than replying to the THOMAS Family Mail List and re quoting the entire original message each time in replying to the list. This is relevant to both THOMAS Family Mail List subscribers and THOMAS Family Mail Digest subscribers when replying to any specific message. Thank you for your attention, your patience, and cooperation in this matter. And thank you for your participation in the THOMAS Family Mail List! TTYL Craig List Adm for THOMAS-L and THOMAS-D