I just received this tidbit of info from another list and thought I would pass it on. >From Ancestry's Daily News: IN THE NEWS ONLINE: USENET ARCHIVES BACK ONLINE =============================================== The search engine Google.com (http://groups.google.com/) has reposted over 650 million messages posted to Usenet dating backto the mid-1990s. For more information, see: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/9320.html You didn't miss them while they were gone, you say? Well, then, you have been missing out on a LOT of fascinating genealogy material. When the Internet was in its infancy, before the birth of the World Wide Web even, there was Usenet. These days, sadly, many ISPs don't even run a news server, and many folks have only accessed the Usenet newsgroups via Deja, or through the gatewayed/mirrored Rootsweb lists. Unfortunately, the auto-moderator for the Surnames lists has been broken for a long time, and is not yet fixed, so the list method of access was closed, and since Deja was sold to Google.com, there wasn't even any web access left. [Of course, you can still search the list Archives here at Rootsweb, http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=SURNAMES-L But that has all changed, and you can now search all of Usenet, or only selected parts, with the wonderful Google search engine. Try it, you'll like it! It might even inspire you to fire up your news reader, and access Usenet directly. It's a wild and wooley, anarchic and wonderful place! -- Regards, Unless stated to the contrary at the beginning of the text, this message may be considered to be in the public domain and may be copied, distributed, forwarded, etc. without infringing upon any copyright to which I may normally be entitled. Ian Marr 10.5m above sea-level at 38°23'15"S by 142°36'04"E If life's a buch of roses, am I the thorns? Eddress: marrtron@ansonic.com.au Home Page: http://www.ansonic.com.au/marrtronics/ I can also be found on ICQ - 7894010 List Administrator: DIVENS, FRUISH, ROOF, WINFIELD on Rootsweb.com