E-Mail Lists

Genealogy e-mail lists

ABOUT MAILING LISTS

Mailing lists are remarkably simple beasties -- you send a piece of e-mail to the list's address, and the list retransmits that message to everyone who is subscribed.

ALL LISTS HAVE TWO ADDRESSES

EEvery mailing list really has two addresses -- the list name, where posts should be sent, and the list name followed by -request, where commands to the listserver software should be sent. For example, posts to ROOTS-L should go to ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com while "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests should go to ROOTS-L-request@rootsweb.com.

LIST MODES AFFECT HOW YOU RECEIVE POSTS

MAIL MODE is where every post sent to the list is resent to subscribers as a separate piece of e-mail.
  
DIGEST MODE is where several posts are batched together and then sent to the subscribers bundled together in one email. Digests produce less clutter in your mailbox, but replying to an individual message requires a little extra effort. You have to remember to change the subject line in your reply email and if your email software quotes the text of the original message in your reply, you have to delete all the text that is not germane to your reply (which can be substantial).

A "TO DO" LIST FOR PARTICIPATING

  • Please DO participate in the discussions.
  • Please DO post your questions about genealogical resources in the area that the list covers.
  • Please DO post your queries about your ancestors that you are trying to find.
  • Please DO help as many other people on the list as you can.
  • Please DO send your messages to the list in plain text format.
  • Please DO write out the dates in your messages in day/month/year format, e.g. 12 May 1999. This eliminates the possiblity of confusion.
  • Please DO proofread your message, the subject line AND the email address to which you are about to send it. Is everything correct? Are you sending it to an individual or to the list? Make sure before hitting SEND.
  • Please DO check out the vast amount of information that has been compiled on this society's web site. You just might find an answer to something without having to ask the question!
  • Please DO consider becoming a member of the society that is sponsoring the list. You are interested in there being more and better genealogical resources and information in this area and a strong society can make things happen.

A "TO NOT DO" LIST FOR PARTICIPATING

  • Please DO NOT post virus warnings or chain letters to the list. 99% of them are urban legends and hoaxes.
  • Please DO NOT "flame" anyone on the list. Be nice and people will be nice to you.
  • Please DO NOT post strictly personal messages to the list. If you make a new friend and start chatting, don't do it in public.
  • Please DO NOT send attachments of any kind to the list.
  • Please DO NOT send your messages using any sort of formatting (other than plain text). This means no images, no colored text, no boldfacing or underlining, etc. The mail server will simply kick it back to you without it reaching the list.
  • Please DO NOT include a list of the surnames you are researching in your signature file. The messages on our list(s) are archived and can be searched by visiting http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl. When somebody is searching for your surname, it should be found only once. If they are searching, and get too many hits because your surnames are included with every email that you have ever sent to the list, they may not request all the messages and therefore may miss seeing your message that has your actual family data.

SOME THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN REPLYING TO POSTS

  • If your email software quotes the original message in your reply, PLEASE delete all text from the original message that is not germane to your response.
  • If you subscribe to the digest mode of the list, remember to change the subject line to reflect the subject of your reply.
  • If you are responding to a particular thread (a series of messages on the same subject) and the discussion starts to veer away from the original topic, it's a good idea to change the subject line to reflect the new topic(s). Many people who subscribe to many lists (and therefore have to deal with a huge amount of email) typically just scan the subject lines and use only that information in their decision to read or not to read your message.

MOBILE BAY AREA ROOTS

[AL-MOBILEBAY]

A mailing list for anyone with a genealogical interest in the Mobile Bay, Alabama, area, specifically Mobile and Baldwin Counties in Alabama plus the counties which border these counties in Mississippi (George, Greene and Jackson), Alabama (Clarke, Escambia, Monroe and Washington) and Florida (Escambia).

Topics for the list include genealogical queries and discussions of resources having to do with the aforementioned counties and various time periods in the area's history such as the Louisiana Purchase (Mobile was the first capital of Louisiana), Spanish West Florida, the Confederate period, the Mississippi Territory, etc. As well, "press releases" from genealogical societies and libraries in the aforementioned counties are welcome.

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) as the only text in the body of an email message to:  
AL-MOBILEBAY-L-request@rootsweb.com (for mail mode) or AL-MOBILEBAY-D-request@rootsweb.com (for digest mode). 

Once you are subscribed, the mailing address for all postings is AL-MOBILEBAY-L@rootsweb.com.  You must be a member of the list to post. 

You should also check out the archives of this list to see if messages have already been posted that might interest you.  Go to  http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl to search the list archives.  When you are asked for the name of the list, enter AL-MOBILEBAY.

 

MGS - Members Only

[MGS-MEMBERS]

A mailing list for the members of the Mobile Genealogical Society. All MGS members with an email address are automatically subscribed to the MAIL MODE of the list. We do not use the DIGEST MODE of this list.

The primary purpose of this list is to provide a means for the Society to make announcements to MGS members who have email addresses and for online members to participate in genealogical CD sharing with each other (members do lookups for other members).

MGS members who do not wish to receive email from [MGS-MEMBERS] can unsubscribe themselves by sending an email with the word "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) as the only text in the body of the message to MGS-MEMBERS-L-request@rootsweb.com.  You must send the email from the exact email address that is subscribed. 




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