Why? I did a lot of research. It paid off very well for me. I like the idea of giving something back. I started all of this due to an illness which resulted in my inability to no longer work outside my home. While what I can do is limited, I am grateful for all the Internet has offered me. I think it is an awesome medium with fabulous potential which I don't believe has been reached yet, but it will.

I've used the 'Net to find my Aunt's friends family. She had never seen a picture of her own Mother and only had memories of her before she had died so tragically when she was five. She didn't even have her own birth certificate as she and her brother were placed with a family who, for whatever reason, choose to hide all information from them. I was asked to help out and on a whim thought, why not? It was very frustrating having so little to go on. After a month went by I figured it was a lost cause yet continued sporadically over the next month to plug away. I finally located an obituary for one of the names in her family that she remembered. I called and asked a surviving family member if they remembered her and if they could get the papers and news articles about the horrible death so she could close this chapter in her life. It was so lucky, not only did they have all the birth certificates and so forth, but had pictures for her. It felt great. I was offered money or a dinner and I choose nothing. I saw it as a challenge and a good deed. Ya, what a girl scout. But it did feel good!