Whoah!   Waco?   I have to respond to the posting by "cope" on Mormon Archaeolog
y.
 As a non-LdS person I have to say that assistance from the Mormon Church
and its members has been very good to outstanding.  As a group I find the
members to be well above average in historical knowledge and interest...
we have some differences of opinions over some interpretations.   They're
just differences.  People share the family diaries quite willingly.  They
volunteer... they help out.  Sounds pretty awful doesn't it?
 
There are lots of "insider" historians and they are pretty prolific (anyone
heard of Stan Kimball?).  There is no lack of either  LdS or non-LdS work.
 (That's a fine old tradition by the way.  Remember, Sir Richard Burton
went to Utah to study the  Mormons in the early 1860s.)
 
I've had nothing but positive experiences so far (and a lot of my work
focuses upon one of the touchier aspects of Mormon History-- The Utah Campaign
of 1857).    It's sometimes difficult bridging the gaps between apologist
and anti-Mormon histories.   Heck, it's sometimes difficult bridging the
gaps between Confederate and Federal accounts of certain events during
the American Civil War.  Bridges don't build themselves.
 
Walk in Beauty... Terry