Roots-L mailing lists are key to communication

I continue to be amazed at the number of people who are unaware of a great genealogy communication tool, the Roots-L mailing lists.

I discovered these when I was first browsing the Rootsweb site several years ago. When I signed on to several of them, my genealogy world began to open up almost immediately.

The Roots-L lists are e-mail lists on the Internet where persons who have areas in common communicate about their ancestors. If you don't mind getting lots of e-mail, these lists are for you.

These lists are like giant e-mail party lines where communication continues constantly on a surname, county, state, or topic of interest such as cemeteries, Civil War, etc. You may sign on for any number of topics and your mailbox is filled daily with queries from others who have the same interest.

I signed up in the beginning for Cleburne and Randolph counties in Alabama and the surnames Fowler and Blake. I found out more in two days on the Roots-L lists than I had discovered in six months of conventional research. I have since expanded my number of lists to include other surnames and areas of research. I think I'm on about 25 of them. I attribute much of my success to these lists.

First I'll tell you how they work, then I'll tell you how you can subscribe to the lists.

The lists are sponsored by Rootsweb and are "managed" by ordinary persons like you and me who volunteer to be list managers. The list manager maintains order, so to speak, and sets down the rules for belonging to the group. One of the main rules is that information is restricted to genealogy topics only. No jokes, chain letters, attachments, or off-subject topics are allowed. Neither are nasty comments, called "flaming."

The list manager has the power and the authority to remove persons from the list and to restrict or "monitor" topics that come across the board. The lists are in operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

You must "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" to the lists using a specific procedure and you may sign on and off as your needs change. If you forget which lists you are subscribed to, you may go to Rootsweb's Password Central on the home page, ask, and they will send you an e-mail letting you know.

Once you are subscribed, the list manager will send you a welcome letter, usually with the rules he or she has set for the list, and remind you of the method you must use to get off the list.

Hundreds of people across the country, and some in foreign countries, are members of these lists so your research communication possibilities are literally unlimited. I believe the list manager for the Georgia-L list said there were about 800 subscribers to her list. And that's just one list.

Once you are subscribed, you will begin getting e-mails from others on the list immediately. Keep in mind that everybody on the list is not searching for the same family and some messages may not pertain to you specifically. Your "delete" key may get quite a workout. But if you make even one contact, it is worth all the letters you delete.

Some people don't seem to understand the concept of these "mass" mailings and once I got letters from one poor soul who kept writing me to tell me she was getting all my mail. What you send to the list goes to everybody on it. It's like sitting in a group with about 20 conversations going on at once. Just ignore and delete those that don't pertain to you. Once you make a contact, you may write them at their individual e-mail address and take your comments off the list. Or, you may wish to continue corresponding across the board as what you are saying may provide a valuable key for someone else.

For instance, if you are on the Fayette-L list, someone may request a census lookup for the Brown family in Fayette County in 1860. Whoever can provide the information would post a reply, hopefully to the list, thereby giving others who are researching in Fayette some helpful information. When a message is sent or a reply is posted, it usually includes the name of the list it came from and the e-mail address of the sender.

Some lists are automated so that when you hit the "reply" button, it automatically goes back to the list, not just to the sender. You have to be careful here as sometimes personal messages are accidentally sent to the list, followed by red-faced apologies from the sender.

You may also sign up for either "mail mode" or "digest mode." "Mail" mode means you receive all messages to the list individually. "Digest" mode means that all the messages received by that list are lumped together and sent as one message, usually at the end of the day. The digest mode cuts down on the number of e-mails you receive. For instance, if you are signed up for the Fayette-D list (digest), all the messages to the Fayette-L (regular mail) list for that day are collected and sent in one message.

Now, how do you sign up for these wonderful communication tools? First, go the Rootsweb's home page, www.rootsweb.com. At the top of the page, you will see a block called "Mailing Lists." Click on that and it will take you to the page where you may select a topic and sign up. It's pretty self-explanatory once you get there and links are provided with instructions on how to subscribe. I recommend signing on to just a few lists at first until you see how much mail is generated.

Once you find your topic and decide whether you want mail or digest mode, click on the blue link that says "Subscribe to (whatever)" and put one word in the body of the letter ... "subscribe." Nothing else. If the subject of the letter is not already filled in with the word "subscribe," fill that in also (it usually is). You should get a reply within a few seconds (no more than a minute) confirming that your e-mail address has been added to the list. If you don't, you did something wrong. Try again.

Once you are subscribed, I think you will be amazed at how fast your research proceeds. I have met cousins from all over the country and could fill a whole column with my success stories. Thank you, Rootsweb!

Looking for your ancestors? Got a genealogy tip? Write to The Citizen, Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; e-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com.

Until next week, happy hunting!