"Some people are reluctant to use the Family History Centers." As Bing Crosby once said, "Some people like to wear their shoes in the pool." Don't be shy of the LDS centers/stakes! It pays off. I will give one quick example, not LCT related, but it could just as well have been. I knew who my great-grandfather Wojciech "George" Zielinski was, but NOTHING about his family...and here it was, my own surname...!? It was years before an accidental, surprise letter led me to his niece in Illinois who, lo and behold, had married her cousin in her very later years. HER mom was my g-grandfather's sister, Marja...HIS dad, his brother Stanislaw. Two links with one letter! To this, I had a few pictures that indicated one photo was my g-g's sister, Antonina. Another photo was apparently his brother, Antoni. Lots of good guesswork, and some good info. So, one day I'm tooling around the LDS site, but instead of searching for marriages, etc., I searched for places. And I stuck in Helenków, reputedly my g-g's place of birth, a little village in present-day Ukraine. Do you know there was more than one hit? I mean, this town doesn't even show up on maps! You get the impression it makes Fayetteville look like the Big Apple. But there it is, plain as day. SO OFF I GO to the stake near me. Stakes are rare in this area, but that's the way I like 'em. I order some films. Down the road, they show up. And I find a load of Zielinski's. One....wow...it's my great-grandfather, Wojciech and those, yes, those are the people that should be his folks, based on my records, and wow, it s-a-y-s they are ... including the guy, his dad, who was on the ship that brought him over here. So it reconfirmed my ship records. And they also have a kid named Marja and one name Stanislaw. It's them! The brother and sister. And there's Antoni, also a son, and Antonina, also a daughter...! The supposed, now certain, brother and sister. And there's all the OTHER brothers and sisters, none of which were known to the family we have now in the U.S.! And here's some marriages. And here's some deaths. And in the main village of Kozowa...well, it appears it's the index listing the marriage of my second-great-grandparents, this bunch's folks! Mind you, these were just the indices, but did list parentage on each. Using this, I determined the Antonina Laskowski who wrote Polish letters to my grandaunt in St. Louis must be her Aunt Antonina Zielinski, and there indeed was her marriage to a Laskowski. And there was the birth of their daughter, Anna, who might still be alive, and in her 70's. Well, other letters from the same area in Poland listed an "Anna Chodyko," so I said...that's THE Anna, and she married a guy with that last name. Then I posted these findings on Genforum and the Ancestry message boards. It's a while down the road, but I get contacted by somebody in Poland who's from her city. Come to find out, her grandfather knows Anna Chodyko! He asks her if I can write, and she says yes. Long and short...we've started writing one another. I even got a Christmas card from Poland a month ago, with a little wafer they share that shows the Holy Family in the manger scene! Now I embark, with whomever I can find who is able to translate, on an attempt to find out from Anna what happened to her mom, dad, aunts and uncles, and grandparents... And all because I went to the LDS stake and went through the motions and ordered the film. It can happen to YOU, too........ But not if you never try. - jEz p.s.: And Happy 125th Birthday to W.C. Fields...! >>> Diane Casey <ILuvAZ@cox.net> 1/29/2005 2:40:22 AM >>> Several months ago, someone asked me where to get copies of the Village Messenger newspaper which was published in published: Fayetteville, Tenn. by Ebenezer Hill, [1823-1828]. I apologize that I don't remember who and right at this moment my email program won't let me into my saved messages folder. ARGH! :-) One of the places to see copies of this newspaper is your local Family History Center library. You can order the microfilm sent to your town. http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titledetails&titleno=398874&disp=Village+messenger+%28Fayetteville%2C+Ten%20%20&columns=*,0,0 (Sort of soapbox): Some people are reluctant to use the Family History Centers. I have been using them fore over 15 years and they have a very comprehensive collection of LCT books and resources. This library is available to all faiths. For instance, I am not LDS but have always been welcomed at these libraries. I wish more people would take advantage of the genealogical holdings there. (end soapbox) Also, if you look in the archives of this list, Linda Parrish submitted tidbits from the Village Messenger. I thought these were online somewhere but can't find the link. Diane ==== TNLINCOL Mailing List ==== Please capitalize SURNAMES in your posts. ============================== Census images 1901, 1891, 1881 and 1871, plus so much more. Ancestry.com's United Kingdom & Ireland Collection. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13968/rd.ashx