Good morning all, I just wanted to take an opportunity to introduce myself to you. I recently became the 'manager' of the Gray County mailing list, and, at the same time, started administering a full suite of GenConnect boards for the county. Managing a Rootsweb County mailing list is basically just keeping the list active...posting general information from time to time, and passing on to you anything that has to do with genealogical research in Gray County. The rest is up to each one of you! I will call for a Roll Call about once a month -- a list-wide call for any and all family who have lived in Gray County. This always brings great results...many make family connections during a roll call, or can give or receive personal-knowledge information that might help in research. We also get to know one another better! Importantly, it places valuable data in the Gray County archives to be searched by others for years to come. The GenConnect boards are another excellent research source. I've set up a special page for the full suite of boards, and have included an explanation of how they were set up originally. Linking to their main page, you can learn how they can best be used to help you in your family research. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~tmetrvlr/graycob.html Please take the time to post your own queries and log any other family information you've found in your genealogical research. Other than the Queries board, my personal favorite is the one specifically for Biographies...I love to read others entries on early county residents, and I enjoy adding bios on my own family members for others to read for years to come. I hope you will also visit the Gray County GenWeb page at... http://www.rootsweb.com/~txgray/ The County Coordinator is Marie Bartholomew, and she is in the process of adding valuable county records to the webpage. If you have personal access to Gray County records and information, I'm sure she would appreciate any and all contributions and offers to do lookups. I am not an expert on genealogical research in the county, but, like you, I've had family living in Gray County for many years...over the past 100 years, 5 generations of my family have lived in McLean. My mother and her younger siblings went to school there, as did my son, and I graduated from McLean High School in 1962. My main Gray County families I research are Sullivan and Meacham in McLean, and Shipley, Anderson, and Haynes in Pampa. I hope you all will get the most out of the Rootsweb-sponsored genealogical research tools available to us for Gray County -- by making frequent posts and participating in discussions on the mailing list, and by posting to the various GenConnect boards. There are other research-related features specifically for Gray County which will appear as 'taglines' at the end of every other post...rotating with contact information to me and another for how to make great query messages. I'll put samples below. Many thanks for your subscription to the Gray County mailing list, and I hope you will gain a great deal from your participation. Pass the word and let's boost our numbers! Take care, LaRae Halsey-Brooks Gray County Mailing List Mgr. Tag 1: - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GRAY CO. GENWEB PAGE: http://www.rootsweb.com/~txgray/ CLUSTER BOARD: http://resources.rootsweb.com/USA/TX/Gray GENFORUM: http://genforum.genealogy.com/tx/gray/ QUERIES: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Tx/Gray - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tag 2: - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Remember to include the five basic items: WHO (complete name), WHAT (are you seeking?), WHEN (did these folks live?), WHERE (did these folks live?) and HOW (can we reach you?). - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tag 3: - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Please contact the Gray County mailing list manager at TimeTrvlrO@aol.com with any comments, questions or problems you may have regarding your membership. - ----------------------------------------------------------------------