I just sent a similar message to the Harris-Hunters list. If you have anyone in your family who was living in 1880, you might try following some of these instructions: 1.  The 1880 US census is online at <A HREF="www.familysearch.org">www.familysearch.org</A>  Look on the right side for a listing of the 1880 census.  Do you know some dates and some places where your people lived? If so, this will help you fill in the blanks on the search of the 1880 census for at least some of the family members.  The 1880 census is a great help because it asks where the parents of each person enumerated was born.  (This clue helped me trace my KY-born ancestor to the birthplace of his father--North Carolina--where I found a bundle of records!!!  Those got me back to colonial Virginia.) 2.  If a subscriber is near a public library, he/she should ask about interlibrary loan.  To get some idea of what genealogical books for localities are available, a researcher can again go to the Family History Library catalog on the above website and get a description of the books--the author and title, publisher and date of publication.  Salt Lake City is acquiring new books all the time, but cataloging is slow.  So one might dip into some websites for genealogical publishers, like Genealogical Publishing Company, TLC Genealogy, Southern Historical Press, Iberian Press, and a bookseller in Maryland--Willow Bend books--to get an idea of what one might be able to borrow--for a small fee--and a waiting period. I have been surprised at the libraries which have held some of the books I interlibrary loaned--small community colleges in the boonies, for instance. I hope these suggestions help overcome some genealogical brick walls.  Genealogy takes a lot of persistence and patience and figuring how to outsmart your ancestors who hid their documents from you! Sometimes you have to find them in the court records (or tax records).  There were no small claims courts, no credit cards, so people were always suing each other for debts, not to mention assault and battery.  I read last night in some colonial Virginia records that a couple of fellows were given the death sentence (on the gallows) for horse thievery!  But I'm not sure we are any more *civilized* these days! E.W.Wallace