I spend a lot of time every day reading, contributing to, and administering some of these:-


"RootsWeb message boards and mailing lists provide an excellent way for you to permanently record the information you have obtained.
It only takes a few moments to type out the information contained in a birth,
death, or marriage record, and not much longer to transcribe the genealogical data from a pension or military record onto a message board or into an e-mail message to a mailing list where others will find it and benefit from your efforts."

a LIST SERVER is a computer on the web which you can send a message to, and which resends it to all the subscribers of that list and archives a copy for later reference.

"You can find information about mailing lists here" RootsWeb: Genealogy Mailing Lists and you can subscribe to lists of interest directly from the list index pages.
Message boards are located here:RootsWeb Message Boards
Use the FIND A BOARD search box or navigate through the index pages to locate a board for which your data is relevant."


When you are considering what data you might transcribe for your
genealogical good deed, remember that private family records to which the public does not have access, such as family Bible records, diaries, daybooks, photographs, and other "heirloom" type information handed down to you -- even the oral traditions and lore handed down from one generation to another -- can be of immense value to others who did not grow up hearing the stories and traditions or who do not have access to the family's private collection.

In addition to preserving data that might otherwise be lost to future generations and making it accessible to those who wouldn't otherwise find it, there is the additional benefit of making contact with others.
They, in turn, might have information for which you have been unsuccessfully searching -- thus putting you on the receiving end of the good deed and rewarding you for your efforts.

Often researchers who complain about not receiving answers to the queries they post on a mailing list or message board find that they do receive responses when they take the approach of offering data rather than asking questions.
It could be the approach that is needed to help you break down your brick wall."

from :-

"Giving: The Secret to Getting"
RootsWeb Review : RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine
Vol. 6, No. 37, 10 September 2003, Circulation: 947,592+(c) 1998-2003 RootsWeb.com, Inc. http://www.rootsweb.com/

Editor: Myra Vanderpool Gormley, Certified Genealogist


AND the above method certainly has worked for me as my cousins have found me by by googling WATKINS with a farm or village name years after the original post - TREBINSHUN or LLANFAIR KILGEDDIN - where I have rediscovered the family grave from a reference in an old will.

ARRIDGE and WRENFORD who were family friends, respectively of my mother and my paternal grandfather, have also cotacted me - my interest is family history as much as pedigree.

So get into those old address books and Birthday Books and transcribe them too.


And if you have not got time to transcribe and type it all up just scan it for example -Owners of Land in Monmouthshire

I see that Thomas Watkins, father and son, ae doing alright owning High Mead at Llanfair Kilgeddin, Little Trostrey - my great grandmother farmed there as a widow, and a couple of houses in USK
but Trellech ? and who was A E F Watkins in Abergavenny ? Where the first Thomas W was born

from OWNERS OF LAND RETURNS 1873
INDEX: Returns of Owners of Land 1873
I head about that site on the Monmouthshire list but a second look inspired by a link to CAERWENT in the latest RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine gives food for thought because I know more now.
My great great uncle Thomas Holmes on this page is a relative because his daughter Frances (Fanny) Maria Holmes married the third Thomas Watkins . . . . . . .