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- From: john@woodgate.org
- Newsgroups: alt.answers,alt.genealogy,news.answers,soc.answers,soc.genealogy.computing,soc.genealogy.misc
- Subject: [FAQ] soc.genealogy.misc Frequently Asked Questions
- Followup-To: soc.genealogy.misc
- Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 13:50:56 BST
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
- Expires: Wed, 03 Nov 1999 13:50:56 GMT
- Message-ID: <34762@meertech.demon.co.uk>
- Reply-To: john@woodgate.org
- Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions
- (and their answers) about Genealogy. It should be read by
- anyone who wishes to post to soc.genealogy.misc newsgroup,
- or the GENMSC-L mailing list.
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-
- Archive-name: genealogy/misc
- Posting-Frequency: 21 days
- Last-Modified: 1999/07/05
- URL: http://www.woodgate.org/FAQs/socgmisc.html
-
- Frequently Asked Questions For soc.genealogy.misc
-
- Summary
-
- This regular posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- and their answers about genealogy or Family History. It should be read by
- anyone who wishes to post to the soc.genealogy.misc newsgroup or to the
- associated mailing list GENMSC-L.
-
- If you have any comments or additions, or would like to suggest further
- topics to be included, then please contact John Woodgate,
- (john@woodgate.org)
-
- Contributions by:
- Brian Randell, Ruth Satterthwaite, Stephen Wood, Johan Berteloot,
- Miles Abernathy
- Changes For This Version (5th July 1999)
- Moved to a new server. Removed all references to the Eworld server.
- Removed section on listserv as that software is no longer used.
- Updated the URL for the Roots Surname List (RSL)
-
- Copyright and Disclaimer
-
- Copyright (c) 1999 by John Woodgate. All rights reserved.
-
- This document may be freely redistributed in its entirety without
- modification provided that this copyright notice is not removed. It may not
- be sold for profit or incorporated in commercial documents without the
- prior written permission of the copyright holder. Permission is expressly
- granted for this document to be made available for file transfer from
- installations offering unrestricted anonymous file transfer on the
- Internet.
-
- This document is provided AS IS without any express or implied warranty.
-
- The author may be contacted at 50 Great Meadow Road, Bradley Stoke,
- Bristol, BS32 8DA, England.
-
- Questions Discussed
-
- General Interest
-
- 1. What are soc.genealogy.misc and GENMSC-L for?
- 2. Where do I get on-line information and guidance?
- 3. Are there any other sources?
- 4. What about the Mormon data?
- 5. How do I get the latest version of the FAQ?
-
- GENMSC-L
-
- 1. How do I subscribe to GENMSC-L?
- 2. How do I Unsubscribe to GENMSC-L?
- 3. How do I get copies of past messages?
- 4. How do I get the messages as a digest?
- 5. How do I get the messages as a index?
- 6. How do I get the messages as separate messages?
- 7. I keep getting 'unknown address.' What can I do?
-
- Roots Surname List
-
- 1. What is the Roots Surname List?
- 2. How do I add to the Roots Surname List?
- 3. Roots Surname List on the Web
-
- General Interest
-
- 1. What are soc.genealogy.misc and GENMSC-L for?
-
- soc.genealogy.misc is an unmoderated Usenet newgroup which is intended
- for any genealogy-related posting which is not appropriate for one of
- the other soc.genealogy.* groups. Possible topics include
- time-sensitive and/or wide audience announcements and requests;
- information about personal experiences and contacts; and solicitation
- of other researcher's opinions.
-
- Other topics include:
- 1. Questions about which soc.genealogy.* group is appropriate for a
- given question.
- 2. Announcements (special events; new products and services, etc.)
- 3. General advisories (scams, finds in used bookstores, etc.)
- 4. Wide audience requests: (does anybody have this book; advice
- about researchers in, or travel to a particular location; etc.)
- 5. Requests for opinions on ways to handle particular family
- situations.
- 6. Sharing of personal experiences that do not illustrate methods of
- general applicability.
- 7. Discussions about unusual names or nicknames, etc.
-
- All who have access to the Usenet soc.genealogy.misc newsgroup, or to
- the GENMSC-L mailing list are welcome to join and take part. This
- newsgroup is not moderated. Anything posted to the newsgroup will be
- seen by all the readers of the newsgroup and the mailing list and vice
- versa. Remember, what you post will be seen exactly as you post it.
-
- We therefore recommend 'lurking' in the newsgroup or mailing list
- (i.e. reading messages without posting anything) for a few days so as
- to get an idea of how people typically phrase their postings, and so
- learn how to best formulate any questions or comments, before you
- start posting to the newsgroup and mailing list yourself.
-
- Advertising or selling of a product or service is not in general
- regarded as acceptable. They should be placed in
- soc.genealogy.marketplace
-
- 2. Where can I get on-line information and guidance?
-
- There is a very good source of information on sites which have
- genealogical information. This a list being put together by John
- Fuller. John posts the list from time to time to the
- soc.genealogy.misc newsgroup. If you cannot find a copy on your local
- machine, you can FTP a copy from ftp.cac.psu.edu. The file is
- ftp://ftp.cac.psu.edu/pub/genealogy/text/guides/gresinet.txt. There is
- also a list available on the Web at http://www.eskimo.com/~chance/
-
- For the foreseeable future, it is likely that much of the information
- you will need will be found only in books, or on microfilm or
- microfiche in the various libraries, archives and record offices. Do
- not expect to be able to restrict your research just to data that is
- available to you on-line.
-
- 3. Are there any other sources?
-
- If you are using the World Wide Web (aka WWW, W3, Netscape, Internet
- Explorer) you can reach a page related to genealogy via the URL
-
- http://www.genhomepage.com/
-
- It provides a lot of pointers to a lot of the genealogy related
- material on the internet.
-
- 4. What about the Mormon data?
-
- The pre-eminent source of genealogical information is in the Family
- History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
- (the Mormons). There are NO on-line access facilities to this immense
- library, but there are branches of this library in many towns and
- cities throughout the world. You would be well advised to seek out
- your nearest branch of this library and pay it an early visit.
-
- 5. How do I get the latest version of the FAQ?
-
- You can obtain the latest version of the FAQ from various sources:
- o Via anonymous FTP from ftp://ftp.woodgate.org/FAQs/socgmisc.txt
- o Via the WWW at the following URL
- http://www.woodgate.org/FAQs/socgmisc.html
-
- GENMSC-L
-
- 1. How do I subscribe to GENMSC-L?
-
- You may subscribe to the GENMSC-L mailing list by sending the
- following email message:
-
- To: GENMSC-L@rootsweb.com
- Subject: <Leave Blank>
- SUBSCRIBE GENMSC-L first_name last_name
-
- Do NOT include any other text such as a sig file. If you do, the
- LISTPROC software will attempt to read it as a series of commands and
- probably send you a message or messages saying it cannot understand
- you.
-
- 2. How do I Unsubscribe to GENMSC-L?
-
- You may leave the GENMSC-L mailing list at any time by sending the
- following message:
-
- To: GENMSC-L@rootsweb.com
- Subject: <Leave Blank>
- SIGNOFF GENMSC-L
-
- No name is needed. In fact it will not work if you put your name.
-
- 3. How do I get copies of past messages?
-
- If you think you have missed an important GENMSC-L message, you can
- get a copy of all the messages for a particular week. You can do this
- by sending the following email message:
-
- To: LISTSERV@rootsweb.com
- Subject: <Leave Blank>
- GET GENMSC-L LOGyymmw
-
- 4. How do I get the messages as a digest?
-
- If you would prefer to get the messages from GENMSC-L as a single
- digest, or 'super-message' containing all the messages for that
- 24-hour period, send the following email message:
-
- To: LISTSERV@rootsweb.com
- Subject: <Leave Blank>
- SET GENMSC-L DIGEST
-
- Some email readers have the ability to read a digest and to break it
- down into separate messages for you to read.
-
- 5. How do I get the messages as a index?
-
- If you would prefer to get the messages from GENMSC-L as a index to
- the digest, send the email message
-
- To: LISTSERV@rootsweb.com
- Subject: <Leave Blank>
- SET GENMSC-L INDEX
-
- The instruction on how to get messages which might be of interest are
- included in the index.
-
- 6. How do I get the messages as separate messages?
-
- If you would prefer to get the messages from GENMSC-L as separate
- messages, send the following email message:
-
- To: LISTSERV@rootsweb.com
- Subject: <Leave Blank>
- SET GENMSC-L MAIL
-
- 7. I keep getting 'unknown address.' What can I do?
-
- From time to time, you may find that when you try to send a reply to a
- GENMSC-L message, the message gets returned by your name server with
- the reason 'unknown address'. There is a good chance that the
- rootsweb.com machine will know the address. To send your message via
- this machine (NOT VIA GENMSC-L@rootsweb.com), you will have to modify
- the address you are using.
-
- For example, if the 'bad' address was:
-
- user_name@unknown.address.net
-
- To send this message via rootsweb.com, change the '@' to a '%' and add
- the @rootsweb.com to the end:
-
- user_name%unknown.address.net@rootsweb.com
-
- This means that you want to use the nameserver of rootsweb.com instead
- of your local nameserver.
-
- Roots Surname List
-
- 1. What is the Roots Surname List?
-
- The Roots Surname List is intended to help genealogical researchers
- compare and share data. Readers are welcome to submit the surnames
- they are researching for inclusion in the list, if they are willing to
- share their data with others who may be doing parallel research.
-
- Updates to the list are posted the first weekend of each month.
- Contact information for the submitters of the new or revised info will
- also be posted.
-
- 2. How do I add to the Roots Surname List?
-
- If you want to add the surnames you are researching to the Roots
- Surname List, complete the form at
- http://rsl.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/rsledit.cgi
-
- 3. Roots Surname List on the Web
-
- If you have access to the 'web', then you can conduct an on-line
- search of the RSL using the URL
- http://rsl.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/rslsql.cgi
-
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
- www.woodgate.org/FAQs/socgmisc.html / 5th July 1999 / webmaster
-
-