Hey lankeela, when I read your question title I thought you were going to ask us about our noble lineage. You know, the Thackeray thing: It takes three generations to make a gentleman.
When I joined the AB I created a new yahoo-account for the purpose, and trusted that I'd be notified of all replies by e-mail. Turns out I hardly ever open that mail box, but when I do it seems to me there aren't nearly as many messages as there should be, so I don't think that facility can be trusted - anyone else experienced this? However, thanks to these e-mail-alerts I did once discover a reply that arrived months after I asked my question...!