I hear you Carolyn, I do not wish to cause any problem in this discussion but.......I do wonder for those who have rules.....what do you start with but conjecture? I have stumbled along in my own way and I now have relatives coming out of my ears, a lot of living ones no less that I did not know about....and I got all my info from my dad, my aunt, a cousin in S. Dak. and my own memory..... and went from there. Help from friends, exposure on the Internet and mail from a third cousin who saw me out there, phone calls from others saying I am related to you and on it goes, just any old way I can get them and no rules. I do not even know how to use the FHC archives very well, and most of those are only as accurate as the one who put them there...but I stumble along and have a ball doing it.....at long last I am acquiring some proof, but some is never going to happen and I really do not care. And what is proof? This puzzles me really...Surely the mother of a child should know the birthdate of their child without me having to go get the birth certificate. On many they just do not exist most likely when we get to the really old ones.... I claim them no matter what if they fit in my tree correctly....and will continue to read those cemeteries to try to help others find theirs. I have been asked to join the Genealogical society. Listening to all this makes me not even want to consider it now. Maggie At 11:02 AM 4/10/99 -0700, Carolyn wrote: >People can quote rules of genealogy until they are blue in the face (or >have knarled fingers from typing them) and I will still do my tree >research the way "I" like. I do not tell you that you take your work to >>Some things can never be "proven" to the satisfaction of the few who <snip> >Let's just do our own researching the way we like without asking others >to conform to our own "rules." > >Carolyn Randall > > >==== WALEWIS Mailing List ==== >LEWIS COUNTY, WASHINGTON. One of the most beautiful >places on the face of the earth. Trees everywhere, >green, rivers, creeks, No Place like Home! > > >