I'm trying to create a C# object that can serialize/deserialize itself (so it can configure itself based on an XML configuration file). When an instance of this object is instanciated, I want the object to check to see if a specific XML file exists (that is, it has been serialized before). If it doesn't, it serializes itself (eg. creates an XML file based on it's current settings). If the file does exist, it should deserialize instead. Serializing seems straightforward. However, all of the deserializing methods seems to return an object of type "X". I'm not interested in a new object; I want the existing object to be populated with the XML settings. Is there a way to do this with the .NET classes or would I have to manually parse the XML myself?