This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Williams, Hopson, Carrell, Townsend, Voshay, Evans, Shoemaker, Barnes, Womack, Jones, Dickerson, Lane, Ferrell... Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/ElB.2ACE/649 Message Board Post: I have just returned from a research trip from San Augustine Co.. The ladies at the court house as always were extremely helpful and friendly. After the court house I went to the local library. I have been there a few times before, but it's usually far between trips. I am amazed at the lack of resources this library has. I realize that it's a poor county and that funds aren't available for this type of material. But that's usually the case for most genealogy libraries. I had bought a copy of the original land grants map of San Augustine Co. from the Texas Land Commission and had a copy made for the library. I try to donate a little something to any library that I use very often. I have a challenge for yall. Yes I said "yall". If everyone would try and donate something, we would see that facility rapidly grow. There is so much history that came through San Augustine Co. Even if your relatives didn't permanently settle there, it was one of only a handful of places! that our ancestors would have had to come through to get into Texas. Donations don't have to be expensive. I think "vertical files" are one of the most helpful resources in the collections. So if everyone would make copies of their surname materials and just mail them to the library with a note that they are for the vertical files, this would be wonderful. If you do this, please highlight the surname on each sheet so that the librarians can easily file them. I'm taking one of my surname files with me today and making a copy. I hope to do this every so often and in no time, I should have alot of information to donate. Thanks, Karen Wall