Archive-name: genealogy/misc
Posting-Frequency: 21 days
Last-Modified: 1996/01/12
Version: 1.6
URL: http://www.meertech.demon.co.uk/genuki/socgmisc.htm
URL: http://ftp.cac.psu.edu/~saw/soc.genealogy.misc.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@meertech.demon.co.uk)

Contributions by:
     Brian Randell, Ruth Satterthwaite, Stephen Wood, Johan Berteloot
Changes For This Version (1.6 - 1996/01/12)
     Amened the instruction to access the eworld archive.

Copyright and Disclaimer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Copyright (c) 1996 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 Meersbrook Technical Services, 35 Argyle
Road, Meersbrook, Sheffield, S8 9HG, 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 separate messages?
  6. I keep getting 'unknown address.' What can I do?

LISTSERV
********

  1. What is LISTSERV?
  2. What is available from the LISTSERV?

GENEALOG
********

  1. What is GENEALOG?
  2. How Do I Request GENEALOG Files?

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 are two sources of information on sites which have
     genealogical information. The first is a document in the LISTSERV
     archives called FTPCAC. You can obtain a copy of this by sending a
     mail message to LISTSERV@mail.eworld.com , with no subject and the
     body of the message containing the following line:
     
          GET GENEALOG FTPCAC
          
     The second is 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
     /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, Lynx, Mosaic) you
     can reach a page related to genealogy via the URL
     
     <http://ftp.cac.psu.edu/~saw/genealogy.html>
     
     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:
     
        + Anonymous FTP
          
          Herald Information Systems
               The FAQ is stored in the file /pub/genuki/socgmisc.txt on
               the machine ftp.herald.co.uk.
          Demon Internet
               The FAQ is stored in the file
               /pub/genealogy/genuki/socgmisc.txt on the machine
               ftp.demon.co.uk.
          news.answers archive
               The FAQ is stored in the file
               /pub/usenet/news.answers/genealogy/misc. on the machine
               rtfm.mit.edu.
          
        + World Wide Web
          
          Herald Information Systems
               At the URL <http://www.herald.co.uk/local_info/genuki/>
          ftp.cac.psu.edu
               At the URL
               <http://ftp.cac.psu.edu/~saw/soc.genealogy.misc.html>
          
        + Email
          
          Herald Information Systems
               Via the list processor. Send the following message to
               listproc@herald.co.uk
               
                    get genuki-archive socgmisc.txt
                    
          RTFM Mail Server
               To use the rtfm mail server, send the following command
               to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu
               
                    send usenet/news.answers/genealogy/misc
                    
GENMSC-L
~~~~~~~~

  1. How do I subscribe to GENMSC-L ?
     ********************************
     
     You may subscribe to the GENMSC-L mailing list by sending an email
     message to LISTSERV@mail.eworld.com with the following one line as
     the only text of the message:
     
          SUBSCRIBE GENMSC-L first_name last_name
          
     Do NOT include any other text such as a sig file. If you do, the
     LISTSERV 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 LISTSERV@mail.eworld.com :
     
          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 an email message to LISTSERV@mail.eworld.com with
     the following line as the text of the message:
     
          GET GENMSC-L LOGyymmw
          
          Where
               yy is the last two digits of the year.
               mm is the month
               w is the week letter.
          
     For example LOG9506A will provide a copy of all the messages
     handled by the GENMSC-L list for the first week of June 1995.
     
  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 an email message to LISTSERV@mail.eworld.com
     with the following line as the text of the message:
     
          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 separate messages?
     ***********************************************
     
     If you would prefer to get the messages from GENMSC-L as separate
     messages, send an email message to LISTSERV@mail.eworld.com with
     the following line as the text of the message:
     
          SET GENMSC-L MAIL
          
  6. 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 mail.eworld.com machine will know the address. To send
     your message via this machine (NOT VIA GENMSC-L @mail.eworld.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 mail.eworld.com, change the '@' to a '%'
     and add the @mail.eworld.com to the end:
     
          user_name%unknown.address.net@mail.eworld.com
          
     This means that you want to use the nameserver of mail.eworld.com
     instead of your local nameserver.

LISTSERV
~~~~~~~~

  1. What is LISTSERV?
     *****************
     
     LISTSERV is a computer program which Apple Computer Inc uses to
     control the various mailing lists it hosts. It is also used by a
     number of other sites for their mailing lists. It also handles the
     archives and searching the previous messages. Please try to learn
     the difference. Send a message to GENMSC-L if you want to
     communicate with humans. Send it to LISTSERV if you want to talk to
     a computer. Getting this the wrong way round makes you liable to
     feel 'a bit silly.'
     
  2. What is available from the LISTSERV?
     ************************************
     
     Probably the most important thing you can do would be to request an
     index from LISTSERV. This will list every file available on the
     machine. So before you start to ask questions, send the following
     message to LISTSERV@mail.eworld.com :
     
          INDEX
          
     and see if your questions are answered there. After receiving the
     index, you may request the file you want by using the "GET" command
     in the same manner.

GENEALOG
~~~~~~~~

  1. What is GENEALOG?
     *****************
     
     GENEALOG is an area on the eworld computer which is used to store
     the many textual files which pertain to genealogy. The GENEALOG
     area has more than 175 files, all of which are available to any
     user via normal email. The list is being added to on a regular
     basis. Watch out for messages in soc.genealogy.misc telling you
     about a new file.
     
     You can request a listing of the files by simply sending the
     following message to LISTSERV@mail.eworld.com
     
          INDEX
          
     It will normally take about 10 minutes for the LISTSERV computer to
     reply, sending you a message with the entire list of files.
     
     There is an index of the files maintained at
     http:www.smartlink.net/~leverich/filelist.html
     
     Three files in particular are worth requesting. These are the
     welcome files which are sent to new subscribers to the ROOTS-L
     mailing list. To get a copy of these files send the following
     message to LISTSERV@mail.eworld.com :
     
          GET ROOTS-L WELCOME
          GET ROOTS-L WELCOME1
          GET ROOTS-L WELCOME2
          
  2. How Do I Request GENEALOG Files?
     ********************************
     
     To request a file from GENEALOG, just send the following message to
     LISTSERV@mail.eworld.com :
     
          GET GENEALOG filename
          
     Please replace "filename" with the name of the file you want. If
     required there is a helpfile to explain the use of GENEALOG in more
     detail which you can obtain by sending the following message to
     LISTSERV@mail.eworld.com :
     
          GET ROOTS-L helpfile
          
     One file of particular interest to new readers is the file SRCHFILE
     which describes how to search the ROOTS-L Database for a given
     surname. To request a copy of the file, just send the following
     message to LISTSERV@mail.eworld.com :
     
          GET GENEALOG SRCHFILE
          
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. To obtain a copy of the entire list directly
     from the ROOTS-L LISTSERV, send the following message to
     LISTSERV@mail.eworld.com :
     
          GET FAMILY INDEX
          
     The LISTSERV will return by email, the names of the files
     containing the full current index. The list has been broken up into
     smaller pieces to facilitate network transmission. The INDEX will
     give you the name of the files you want, which you can then obtain
     in the same manner as you obtained the index.
     
  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, send the following message to
     LISTSERV@mail.eworld.com :
     
          GET FAMILY README
          
     and follow the instructions.
     
  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://www.rand.org/cgi-bin/Genea/rsl>

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soc.genealogy.misc / V1.6 - 1996/01/12 / john@meertech.demon.co.uk
                                                                  
