Mojo Chick'n :
I would love to visit the Utah LDS library.
I did "meet" a distant cousin while doing the research. He needed some info that it took me 4 years to track down - and he had less to start with than I did, so I gave him all my research - I thought he was gonna bust with joy
(his ancestor was the older brother to my GGG Grandfather)
He then took a trip to Canada to get pics of gravesites of his line, and he sent me the pics.
Oh, one other thing that helped me with that line - study Naming Practices for the time period - often the eldest sons were named after previous family members - for instance, the first two sons born in my GGG Grandfather's line (the one just mentioned) were named after their maternal grandfather and great grandfather - their first and middle names were the other Grandfather's first and last names - ie; Thomas Tindal Ingall and Richard Stillman Ingall - it made it easier to find which mother "Mary Ingall" or "Sarah Ingall" was part of that line, too (lots of mary's and sarahs back then
)
meri
I've also had good luck with naming practices. The challenge, of course, is when you get a couple of folks in the same area with the same name and similar ages. Sometimes it's hard to figure out which person the data belongs to.
I know that some genealogists don't like to share their information as if they have the sole rights to certain information. I don't feel that way at all. Not only do I use the message boards and post to people who're searching my lines, but I also create and manage surname study groups at YahooGroups. My groups are AWESOME! Some members are more active than others but every member has had something to contribute. I have the Ancestry membership so I do a lot of the lookups. Someone else might have photographs or a written family history. Another may live close to where the ancestors lived and will photograph tombstones. All items are posted to the group and shared equally. The great thing about working this way is that it enables you to really explore a line much more quickly than you might have been able to do if you were working on it all by yourself.