We have decided to take the Cousins Phone Book & Address list off line. In its place, I will, once a month, batch e-mail the latest version of the Cousins List html file to all cousins whose e-mail address appears on the Cousins list. Please update your e-mail and snail mail addresses and phone numbers so that the Cousins List will be as accurate as possible. Remember, if you haven't been receiving invitations to family bar mitzvot and weddings lately, its probably because your snail male address on the Cousins List is out of date. Also, if you did not receive your e-mail copy of the list, it means that I don't have your e-mail address, so you have one more reason to update the list. My e-mail address appears on the home page of the Cousins Web.

On the "Events" page, along with the details, we carry pictures of our children, when they are born, when they have a Bar or Bat-Mitzvah and when they get married. However, we have lately been receiving e-mailed pictures for uploading to the Web of some of our cousins' children between events. To accomodate this, I have now opened this "Cousins' Children" page and you are now invited to send along pictures of your children or grand children, for all the family to see. Please note that I do not have a scanner, so do not send me real snap shots but only digital pictures in ".jpg" format via email. I hope you will like the page...Ben

In the past, some of you had mentioned that the long address required to get to the "Cousins' Web" is too cumbersome to type out. I agree but that was the system set up by Geocities and since the service is free, I never bothered looking a gift horse in the mouth. Later however, Geocities was bought out by Yahoo which last year came out with a shortcut method of accessing our websites. Now it is only necessary to type out... www.oocities.org/bencyjon to get directly to my website, "The Jerusalem Slide Show" and from there, you merely have to click the link "Cousins Web" to get to the family pages. For those who want to go directly to the "Cousins Web", you could use the following address, www.oocities.org/bencyjon/1.html. If your "favorites list" on your web browser already contains our web site, I recommend you leave well enough alone and not change anything. However if you want to access the site from a different computer, or if, for some reason the address does not already appear on your Web browser favorites list, then I recommend you use the new shorter address.

I can't think of a nicer gift you can give a brother or sister, who is not yet on the Internet or to your computerless child who lives away from home, than a printed copy of the "Cousins Address & Phone Book." On second thought, I can think of better gifts, but they cost money. The fact is the "Address & Phone Book" from the "Cousins' Web" is constantly updated, sometimes a couple times a week, and is as accurate as the information supplied by the cousins themselves. I've even had some cousins inform me of address and telephone number changes two weeks before they actually moved to new homes.

Although a regular print out of the "Address & Phone Book" can take up to 14 sheets of paper, that is not necessary, nor is it desireable. You can cut down drastically on the amount of paper by first temporarily requesting your web browser to show text in a smaller font size than you usually set it to. That way you also have less split lines because a lot of the data designed to show up on one line, will now actually fit on the line without spilling over.

Next, you temporarily change the options on your printer software to have your printer print out the "Address & Phone Book" on BOTH sides of the paper instead of only on one side. With that option, your printer will print out every second page and will then request you to turn the printed pages around so that it will then print the remaining pages on the other side of the printed sheets.

I have thus managed to print out a nice copy of the "Address & Phone Book" on only 6 sheets of paper.

When I originally copied the Cousins List to the "Address & Phone Book" page, in the interest of speed, I cut corners by typing the list verbatim without bothering to put the first names in alphabetical order. The family names had already been sorted according to the alphabet.

I have resorted the list so that the first names now also appear in alphabetical order. However, although I do not think there are any errors, there is always the danger that with the countless "cut & paste" operations I have done, a name & address could inadvertantly have been deleted. Please check the "Address & Phone Book" page to make sure your names, as well as those of your immediate family, are still there.

This might also be a good time to check whether you have sent me e-mail to update any addresses, phone numbers or e-mail addresses.

In spite of the fact that I have had very little input concerning my request for pictures and info for a Yar Zheit page on the Cousins Web, I decided to go ahead with what little information and pictures I do have, in the hope that once our cousins see the Yar Zheit page, they will help "fill in the blanks" and contribute to a nostalgic page dedicated to our dear departed. You can access the Yar Zheit page from a link you will see on the index page just under the "In Memorium" link.

With your assistance, I have decided to open a "Yar Zheit" page on the Cousins Web. The page would include as many of our deceased cousins, uncles and aunts that you can supply me details for. The page would include a small picture of the deceased, the name, year of birth, year of passing away, Hebrew date of death, and the approaching English date of the person's Yar Zeit.

What I will need from you is a picture of a deceased loved one, by e-mail attachment, the deceased's name, year of birth, year of death, and Hebrew date of passing away (month & day). I will be able to figure out the upcoming Yar Zeit date myself. I intend to post the page after receiving the first half dozen or so entries.

The Cousins Web has been up for four weeks now, and I must say that reaction from the family has been much more enthusiastic and in larger volume than I could have hoped for. There are many more cousins on line than I imagined, and as proof of that, take a look at the Cousins "Address and Phone Book" to see how many E-mail addresses are now included. During the first couple of weeks, I updated the "Address and Phone Book" page nearly every day, just to keep up with E-mail requests I had received to have cousins E-mail addresses included in the list.

By the way, this makes it easier for you to renew contacts with cousins who now live in different cities. If there's somebody you want to renew contact with, just check the "Address and Phone Book" and see if that cousin's E-mail address is included. If you didn't request that your E-mail address be included yet, then send me an E-mail right away and I will do my best to enter the information in the list before I leave to Montreal on Motzei Tisha Be'Av.

For those of you who want a printed copy of the Cousins List, all you have to do is print it from your Web Browser. I tried it and it comes out beautiful and easy to read. A word of warning though, the print out takes 12 pages.

For a long time I have heard talk about cousins wanting to organize a Cousins Web Page and I decided to sit back and see what will develop. Finally I decided to take the bull by the horns and do the job myself... the technical job that is. As for the news and information and all the joyfull family tidbits, I am relying on you to supply me with the material.

Of course, not all the cousins are on line and Manuel Sand's printed Cousins News Letter will still be as necessary as ever. Manuel, for those of you who may not be old enough to remember, is the founder of the Cousins Club and I remember back when we were in Montreal, the joyfull monthly women's cousin club meetings he promoted. Hey! Why wern't the men included?

This COUSINS WEB will only be as good as YOU make it. Your input - by e-mail, turtle mail or phone calls, is what we are counting on. Where appropriate, please send pictures, by e-mail attachments if you have a scanner, or by regular post if you don't.