FREE Web sites for genealogy research: rootsweb.ancestry.com--forums organized by surname, locality, and other topics such as royal ancestry, etc., originally not affiliated with ancestry, but it is STILL free, and has archived posts going back to the 1990s. usgenweb.org subdivides by states and counties, also message boards where inquiries can be posted. genealogy.com has free surname and locality forums. familysearch.org contains the LDS church's International Genealogy Index, formerly only available on microfiche at branch Family History Libraries. cyndislist.com has a wealth of websites/links on many, many genealogy subjects. Treasure Maps website: google the name to get the right address, because it's one of those sub-sub-sub-divided ones that I'll probably screw up. Also, google the surname, and/or an entire name, alone or combined with terms like "family" and genealogy. If it's a name other than Smith or Jones, misspell it in creative ways. My great-grandfather's surname (Braman) was misspelled on the census as late as the 1930s! As far as Ancestry goes, I subscribe to the United States option, almost solely because of access to scanned images of the US Census. Looking at microfilm using a viewer left me dizzy and nauseated:b. You can search or browse the records, and enlarge the image to decipher handwriting. To me, it is worth the price, but that's a personal decision. Other than that, I have found some useful info in the paid databases, but not a whole lot. All Censuses are available at the regional branches of the National Archives, on microfilm. Sorry this is so lengthy, but this IS the heavily edited version, LOL.

Send me an e-mail through "my page" here with whatever information you have, and I'll do a search. I have a World Deluxe membership at Ancestry.com, so I may be able to come up with something. The Social Security Death Index has been updated through last year; but you aren't guaranteed of finding the info you seek, because the only people who get listed in this index are those individuals against whose SS account a claim was made for death/survivor benefits.

My husband has done some DNA testing, Autosomal, which is where you match cousins and that is probably what he is asking you to do. The other hubs did was Y testing, trying to find males with the same surname. One thing you can do to have a little more control over the results is to 1) make sure you have the kit number and that you set up the password. I had ordered kits for two people and paid for them myself. This was so I could see the results but I also included their email addresses so they would get results and match notifications as well. Once I determined if hubs was related to them (one yes, one no), then I had them change the passwords so that I can no longer get into their kit information. Our situation is a little different than yours but again in our case, like yours, these were total strangers who agreed to help us out. ] Be aware that there are sites that the DNA information can be downloaded to sites like gedcom where people that have different companies that test can compare results. This person may then have your information out there for anyone to compare your DNA to theirs. Names are not listed, just your kit number and he would probably put his email address as the contact person. There is an option of not putting email address at all but then that limits possible matches from contacting him/you. These are questions you should discuss before you do the test. Know if he is having the results sent to him only, you only, or both. If you have them sent only to you, then you can request him sending his to you and you could be the one who sees if there is a match. The person who hubs did not match still appreciated receiving the information and we still keep in touch. The one who did match has helped confirmed our lines matching back to the GGGF in the late 1700's. The autosomal testing is not as definite. We get matches all the time but the probability is small. It has helped to find some relatives that we weren't sure of. Do you know the name of the company and type of test?

I thought to ask whether you felt that some women and some men can be best friends, but later in the thread, some spoke of having best friends of the other gender. My mother was ill from the time that I was about six and I had fairly good friendships with a couple of the spouses of our farm helpers, who helped with housework, but they were rather short term, though I recognized one over 20 years later (while we visited the psychiatric hospital, where Mom had been confined and our farm helper's daughter was then, after some hassles with drugs ... and where my ex- later worked as second, then head, of food service for nearly 25 years) ... and I was rather friendly after meeting her that time, for several years with her and her husband. While I don't think that Dad ever told me that he loved me, I knew that he did ... and if I remember correctly, brother said a while ago that he never did to him, either, that he could recall. Brother that took over the farm said that he and Dad worked together for years and never had more than rare and inconsequential disagreements. I can't think of the major family difficulties that mar many family celebrations. My brother is loved by most everyone who knows him, I think, as he doesn't get perturbed much, and is kindly to most everyone, often helping others when they have need ... built a ramp for wheelchair access to their village church. We had some problems with stepmother, who came into the family after I was away to university, as she could be nice at times, but turn mean in an instant. Her daughter didn't like her and picked a cousin as sort of a substitute mother. Step-sister and my brothers got along well, as she does with me, but I seldom see her. She has said on some occasions that Dad never treated her any different than he did the boys, which she appreciated (though he never adopted her - she had a living father for years). Our other brother died in an auto accident in his 40's, over 30 years ago, when his kids were in their teens. We keep in touch with them - I visited all of them, and sister-in-law, within the last month - in Edmonton ... and Georgia. ______________________ Hi Kathy813, I'm wondering whether you would consider it too much of an intrusion on your privacy to discuss the matter, but when I read your message that you don't have a best friend ... and wish that you did ... I wanted to ask what you felt some of the reasons might be, whether you considered yourself too shy to reach out, or had some that you hoped would develop ito best friends, earlier, but were disappointed, or had some more or less so, that moved far away, etc. As I said ... I don't want to trample on your privacy, to walk around over your heart with my hob-nailed boots, etc. I think that it's apparent from what many have said that good friends are precious, add some wonderful new dimensions to one's life, etc. ... ... and worth making some effort to develop, if one has any interest at all ... and worth taking some risks to develop, I think many posters here would say. Ask most of them whether they'd want to give up their best friend ... and they'd likely quietly shake their head, smile, and say, "No way!!". Good wishes for the rest of the weekend, everyone. ole joyful