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From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: alt.answers,alt.genealogy,news.answers,soc.answers,soc.genealogy.computing,soc.genealogy.misc
Subject: [FAQ] soc.genealogy.misc Frequently Asked Questions
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Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 13:50:56 BST
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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,
([email protected])

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: [email protected]
         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: [email protected]
         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: [email protected]
         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: [email protected]
         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: [email protected]
         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: [email protected]
         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 [email protected]), you will have to modify
    the address you are using.

    For example, if the 'bad' address was:

         [email protected]

    To send this message via rootsweb.com, change the '@' to a '%' and add
    the @rootsweb.com to the end:

         user_name%[email protected]

    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

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