My apologies to the list. I subscribe to the Ancestry newsletter (free, as far as I know--at least I have not been billed). Practically each newsletter has a very instructive article generally by a certified genealogical researcher, most of whom are published authors. The latest Ancestry newletter had a good article concerning how to collect data on various ancestors, and it seemed particularly appropriate for those of who search for ancestors named John Williams, for example--or any other hard-to-identify ancestor. My ancestor John Williams had four sons--each had a son named John. Do you see how fast John Williams multiplies??? Generally, one can send this newsletter article to a friend (e-mail to a friend). However, because rootsweb is now under the wing of Ancestry.com (did you know that?), perhaps there is a computer technique of which I as a neophyte was unaware, and what I tried to e-mail to a friend (the Williams list) comes across as "spam." My apologies--I was totally ignorant. I shall not repeat this exercise. So all of us will continue collecting John Williamses (or whatever Williams) and assuming he/they are the same person, even though, if we did the arithmetic, he would be 120 years old!!!! And living in four different States, not to mention counties! Oh, well, live and learn. E.W.Wallace