I find there is more advertising now ... and everything seems to load a lot slower.

Very cool. We become blind to things, and used to 'that's how they have to be,' especially if we're focused on something else. I'm so happy for you! These little (or big) surprise discoveries are sometimes better than the best laid plans we agonize over for weeks and months. A last minute change in plans as we framed...because a toilet couldn't sit centered over a structural beam... gave me a bigger sewing room, a walk-in pantry I wouldn't have had at all, and a better traffic layout in the house we could have thought of before we ran into the beam, but didn't. That was 4 years ago, and I still think that epiphany was one of the most exciting and important parts of our build. Congratulations!

Family Search (LDS site): http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp Genealogy today: http://www.genealogytoday.com/home.html FindaGrave: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gs& GenCircles: http://www.GenCircles.com Genealogy Historical Indices: http://www.lumarmall.com/genealog.htm Illinois State Archives: http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html BLM GLO (Bureau of Land Management - Governemnt Land Office): A place to find land patents. http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ Ship register of immigrants: http://immigrantships.org/ North American sources: http://www.genhomepage.com/northamerican.html#united_states Civil War: http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/ Civil War in SE Missouri: http://rosecity.net/civilwar/home.html Roots Web: http://www.rootsweb.com/ Genealogy Home Page: http://www.genhomepage.com/ Tennessee GenWeb: http://www.tngenweb.org/ss/tngenwebss.html Welcome to Gen Cricles: http://www.GenCircles.com/ Geenealogy Trails: http://www.genealogytrails.com/ Indiana Mexican War Lists: http://jerry.vigo.lib.in.us/mexican/ Social Security Death Index, at rootsweb: http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/ Black Hawk War of 1832: http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/blackhawk/page2.html Loyalist Institute: During the Revolutionary War, colonists who sided with the Britsh were called Loyalists: http://www.royalprovincial.com/Military/Musters/qarng/qarkerr1.htm *************** Most of these sites I found using Google to unearth data about surames.

Nona, do you paint too? You are a very talented lady! I joined GJ, then started looking around and found this one. Looks like it used to have lots of activity but not many here now.