Guys, it's just been a few days since the updates, but I just wanted to say how grateful I am for the activity recently.

In the past few weeks, we re-launched <a href="http://www.familytreecircles.com/answers/">FamilyTreeCircles Answers</a>. Basically, to create a place for people to ask questions about genealogy (rather than about a specific family member). My goal is to create something even more than the amazing journal content that we already have.

The first launch of this was lackluster and I was a bit nervous about a relaunch. I shouldn't have been, as I now see that it was more how I positioned it before than the willingness of people to ask and answer genealogy questions.

I sent out an email yesterday featuring a few of the recent questions. One was one that we just put here as an example:

<a href="http://www.familytreecircles.com/what-s-the-best-piece-of-advice-you-d-give-to-someone-just-starting-their-family-tree-research-64283.html">What's the best piece of advice you'd give to someone just starting their family tree research?</a>

and the other one was by a user, SallySparkman (I'm not sure she realizes that her question went out to tens of thousands of people in email :) )

<a href="http://www.familytreecircles.com/does-anyone-have-any-suggestions-as-to-where-to-look-in-researching-my-family-tree-back-to-scotland-ireland-and-england-pre-1700-s-64314.html">Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to look in researching my family tree back to Scotland, Ireland and England pre-1700's?</a>

Both got incredibly well thought out responses, as did many others. And the questions poured in. Thank you!

One thing that's becoming apparent to me is that we need another post type for lookup requests. These aren't genealogy questions so much as a request for help on a specific person or surname. I'll be working on that so we can easily keep the three types separate:

* **Journals** - stories and information that you know and want to share with the community. What I call "Cousin bait".
* **Questions** - genealogy questions that are bigger than just a lookup. The context may contain specifics, but there's a general question there, like, "What are all the ways that people may have emigrated from Nova Scotia to the US?"
* **Lookups** - Requests from people who are stuck on a person or line and need help, or another set of eyes. Brick walls.

Lookup requests happen a lot on FamilyTreeCircles, and I think giving them their own space will improve the quality of the requests, as well as allow Questions from getting cluttered.

If you have any feedback on that, I'm all ears. Post a comment here.

Otherwise, keep an eye out for that change, as well as some others.

Again, thanks for being a great community. If you want to keep a close eye on questions that need a response, I added an "<a href="http://www.familytreecircles.com/journals/unanswered/">Unanswered</a>" item in the menu at the top a well as few others.