I found the following information on line several years ago and am sending it to the message board as general interest. I've been using this system since that time and find that it provides a good amount of information in a small enough space to accomodate most message boards and mailing lists. The information is sufficient, I think, for most people to decide quite quickly if a connection may be made or not. HOW TO WRITE A QUERY AND ASK A RESEARCH QUESTION 1. Place a list of the surnames which will be included in your query in the SUBJECT BOX if one is provided. 2. Capitalize all surnames in the Query when you write them in the MESSAGE BOX. 3. Begin your query with the name of the person of interest, followed by his/her birth and death dates and places. 4. Follow that information with the marriage data and place; followed by the name of the spouse. 5. Write the surname of the spouse in Caps, followed by the birth and death dates and places of the spouse. 6. List the children's names and/or the parents' names and data in the order given above (b,d,m). 7. Ask your research question, following the query. EXAMPLE: "What tribes might (this person) have been a member of living in (the area)?" OR " What Indian Rolls are available for the tribes in (this area?)" OR " What county records would show these families?" Or " I would like to correspond with anyone having links with these families." 8. PLEASE ENTER YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS CAREFULLY. NO ONE CAN CONTACT YOU IF IT IS WRONG. 9. If you goof up your message, return to the message page and write a new one. Kathie Donahue