Original title: sending & receiving group contact emails

I don't understand why I cannot send emails to my group contacts, as I have done for many years.  I tried it on another computer in the house today, using my husband's account, and it worked fine.  On my own account, when I begin to type in the group name, for example "Fam," the full name "Family" will appear, I click on it, and it appears in the To line, as it should.  It looks like it is ready to send, but it does not go.  If I copy to my own email to see what happens, I am the only name on the sent message.  This has been a problem for nearly a year, but now I need to use larger group mailings, and it is a bigger problem.  What can I do? Both of our computers run Windows 7 and Windows Live Mail.  I have read some comments from the community about Windows Live Mail not supporting group contacts, but why does it allow the creation of group contacts if they cannot be used?

Thanks,

Ruth