I tried using the "ReadMethod" on a trial run, but the only thing I got out of it, was the name of the method...which I already knew. I might not be using it correctly though.

However, I did find an apparent work-around to my original problem though (the blanking out of the grid). It appears that the table which is the current/active table at the time the form is first shown, is somehow interfering with the grid's link to it's recordsource table. When I changed the code to make the grid's recordsource table the current alias at the time the form is first shown... the grid does not go blank and I can see all the records in the table (when the table does get populated).

This is an "apparent" work-around because I thought I had found the answer before, only to find out that further testing proved me wrong. I still don't know the base reason for the problem - but this seems to fix it.