OK Here's the scoop on the birth records I mentioned yesterday to the lists: 1. Only the Shenandoah VA records came in - not the Rockingham, so those I am still waiting for. 2. The Shenandoah records are births from 1853 through 1892. 3. The names are on a 35mm microfilm photo reel of the original records. 4. The original records were on 2-page, ledger-size sheets (I think approx 8.5 x 14" each sheet), each with about 40 names. There are over 300 pages on the film. I think it was numbered every other page. 5. The records are organized into sections by birth year; within each birth year section into districts (usually townships); and within each township into names sorted by child's (so father's) last name - usually. Sometimes the last name is written first, sometimes last, in the person's name column. 6. The records all show: Date of birth Child's full name Place of birth Father's full name Father's occupation Mother's full name (Many times the married surname - NOT the maiden surname) Person reporting the birth and their relation Misc data about the child such as sex, race, birth problems, etc 7. The writing varies, just like on census films, between unreadable to readable. Generally, the records consist of worse handwriting, and much smaller handwriting, than census films. Many of them are just not readable unless you already know the names involved. Some records were photographed badly, but most are acceptable. 8. At 40 people each page, that means approx 12,000 names. 9. The records are hard to find things on. Knowing the year and the township narrows searches down to several pages which take about 5-8 minutes to scan over. Knowing just the year narrows the search down to 10-15 pages, sometimes more, that take about 20 minutes to scan over. 10. It took me 1.5 hours to go from 1853 to 1871 in examining the film for 1 surname. It would take longer, of course, because of more hits, to search for many names at once. Just like census films, you do get better at understanding each district registrar's handwriting, the longer you work the film. So - I took note of all the surnames that were sent me and I will look up those that I have time to do. The film needs to be sent back Mar 6, maybe I can renew it a few weeks. The Rockingham film, like I said, is not in yet. I received over 60 requests for lookups totaling about 75 surnames. Obviously too much for me to look up at the library on my spare time, so I need to talk to the Shenandoah GenWeb page people to see if a photocopying effort here is the better way to go - affording then a longer time to have volunteers go over the records and transcribe them. Photocopies of one sheet of names MAY take up to 4 xrox copies, depending upon how clear the names appear when reduced to one-page long size copies. Remember I said that the handwriting is very small. The photocopies are negatives - not positives - the handwriting is white on dark gray background. Best case is 2 copies per birth page x 300 pages = 600 copies. Worse case is twice that. At a copy per minute (I suppose), that's 600 minutes or 10 hours. The library would have to cooperate in being ready for that kind of effort. I usually experience a 5% waste due to exposure changes from record to record require a second attempt be made on a copy every now an then. Since somepages are very readable compared to others - just doing those years first might produce a quick product that would have to be augmented later with the harder to copy pages. These films came on VA interlibrary loan. I think any regional library in VA can order them up. I'll be back in touch with the list soon. Bye Kerry Butler kbutler@biztech.net