Last week I wrote an article entitled "Mic Barnette’s Column Needs Your Support." I described how the publisher of this excellent genealogy column had planned a significant reduction in the publication schedule and potential audience. Last week the Houston Genealogical Forum placed a notice on their website at www.hgftx.org/public/chronicle along with an online form to fill in, asking for the column to be preserved in its present format. Comments added to the form were automatically sent by e-mail to senior management at the Houston Chronicle.

Last week I wrote, "I would like to ask every reader of this newsletter to read that webpage. If you agree with the Houston Genealogical Forum’s proposal, please add your name, e-mail address, and comments to the form at the bottom of that webpage and then click on submit."

Apparently a lot of you did just that, and the results are now in. The Houston Genealogical Forum’s webpage now says:

Thank you for visiting this webpage to write and e-mail your complaint to the management of the Houston Chronicle newspaper regarding the "Your Family Tree" genealogy column. The write-in campaign was a H~U~G~E success!!

At the beginning of September, the Chronicle management elected to either remove the weekly genealogy column, "Your Family Tree" - appearing in the Chronicle since 1994 - entirely, or to place it in a monthly supplement titled "50 Plus." Today, 24 September 2002, Chronicle Management notified the Houston Genealogical Forum that as of this Saturday, 29 September 2002, "Your Family Tree" will return to weekly status in the "Weekend Living" section of the newspaper.

The Houston Genealogical Forum established this webpage (complete with a fill-in form for e-mailing to the Chronicle) on the Internet on Friday, 20 September to facilitate interested genealogists the opportunity to write and voice their opinions. In the four days since then, over 175 e-mails have been sent to Chronicle management from over 30 different states and Canada. This is due in no small part to mention of this situation in "Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter" (Vol. 7 No. 38 - September 23, 2002) which is much appreciated by HGF, genealogists in the Houston area, and by Mic Barnette.

It should hearten readers to see that their individual voices combine to make a difference.

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