This morning I spent a few hours volunteering at the Area Research Center (archives) for Wood, Portage and other central WI counties, and learned of two situations of interest to those on the list. First, the backlog of requests for obits and other genealogical records the archives staff had been working on are now completed. They have three students and a UW-SP librarian who works with them to answer requests for research, waiting to retrieve records and answer your requests for obits, naturalization, and pre-1907 vital record copies. Their charges are a bargain, at $5 handling fee for up to five items, and copies costing between 25 cents for obits to $1 each for bound volume copies (naturalizations). So--if you've needed a nudge, this is it, get busy and Send Some Requests to the Archives. It's low-cost research for you and a much-needed boost to their funding. Contact the archives via e-mail at uwsp.edu or check the archives obit search engine page for more information at http://library.uwsp.edu/obits/ Second, and this is the nagging part of my message--there are over TWENTY people who have received research results from the archives between July and September who have NOT paid the very reasonable fees. Not all of those people who have or will be receiving dunning letters are on this mailing list, but if you are, PLEASE pay your bill with the archives so this valuable resource can continue providing service to genealogists. Joan M. Benner, Golden Rule Genealogy Member, Association of Professional Genealogists and Rootsweb Sponsor Friendly Professional Research, Guided by the Golden Rule Specializing in Central Wisconsin Records P.O. Box 1559, Wisconsin Rapids WI 54495-1559 or for more information, http://www.rootsweb.com/~wiwood/resource/r-joanb.htm Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.