1.   Remember, the idea is short lookups. Please keep this in mind; it's a free service, courtesy of our volunteers. Please don't request or expect a volunteer to do a bunch of actual research for you.

2.   Be as specific as possible in your request and limit it to one or two individuals or families. Please don't ask for something like all of the SMITHs or JONESes on the 1900 census.

3.   Be aware of the "Fair Use" provisions of the copyright laws. Short lookups of publicly available information are fine. However, the distribution of photocopies or verbatim transcriptions of significantly large sections of a work still under copyright protection without the author's permission is a definite no-no. For the curious, see here for more info.

4.   Be patient. The volunteers are often inundated with requests and it may take some time for them to get to yours.

5.   Don't forget to thank the volunteer for taking the time to look up the information for you.