Collection of Internet/Collection of Internet.iso/faq/soc/roots_fa

Text File | 1994-03-26 | 12.5 KB | 336 lines

Newsgroups: soc.roots,soc.answers,news.answers
From: [e-mail] (John Woodgate)
Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!hookup!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!uknet!demon!meertech.demon.co.uk!john
Subject: Soc.roots Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Organization: Meersbrook Technical Services
Approved: [e-mail]
Followup-To: poster
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Summary:  This monthly 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.roots
          newsgroup.
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Date: Sat, 26 Mar 1994 21:31:33 +0000
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Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu soc.roots:32657 soc.answers:1005 news.answers:16876

Archive-name: roots-faq
Last-Modified: 1994/03/06
Version: 1.0

                Frequently Asked Questions For Soc.Roots
                              John Woodgate

Contributions by: Cliff Manis, Elizabeth Harris.

If you have comments or additions, please contact John
Woodgate, [e-mail].

Changes are marked with a "|" in the left column. Many
newsreaders (e.g. rn, trn) allow you to search for them with
"g^".

Changes this issue: None

-----------------------------
Subject: Questions Discussed:

General Interest:

     GN1. What is Soc.Roots For?
     GN2. Replying to a message.
     GN3. Basic Soc.Roots Etiquette
     GN4. Access to the LDS database.
     GN5. What about Alt.genealogy?

ROOTS-L:

     RL1. What is ROOTS-L?
     RL2. How do I subscribe to ROOTS-L?
     RL3. How do I Unsubscribe to ROOTS-L?

LISTSERV:

     LS1. What is LISTSERV?
     LS2. What is available from the LISTSERV?

GENEALOG:

     GE1. What is GENEALOG?
     GE2: How Do I Request GENEALOG Files?

Family Index:

     FI1: What is the Roots Surname List?

The discussions below are organised in digest form, so you may
scan ahead for the "^Subject:" string to move from one topic
to the next, and you can search for "^Subject: GN5" to jump to
a particular question. The caret "^" before subject means to
restrict your search to lines starting with. See the
instructions for your news reader to see if it supports this
search mode.

-----------------------------
Subject: GN1. What is Soc.Roots For?

The purpose of this newsgroup is:

     (a)  To provide readers with a way to communicate and
          request information about Genealogy (Family
          History).
     (b)  To provide a forum for the discussion of topics
          related to Genealogy. These should not be restricted
          to any one country or culture.
     (c)  To provide a means of keeping informed of activities
          taking place within the Genealogical community.
     (d)  To help those people who wish to learn how to search
          for information concerning their own family history.

All who have access to the Usenet Soc.Roots newsgroup 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. Remember, what you post,
will be seen exactly as you post it.

Advertising or selling of a product or service is not in
general regarded as acceptable. The announcement of a product
or service and its cost is acceptable.

-----------------------------
Subject: GN2. Replying to a message.

Feel free to answer questions or provide clarification or
comments in response to any posting you see on Soc.Roots.
However, please "REPLY" to the posting ONLY if you think your
comments will be of interest to other readers and you wish
your answer sent to the entire newsgroup.

If you want to start a personal correspondence with the poster
of a message, look in the header of the note and find the
"FROM:" or "REPLY TO:" field where you will find that person's
email address.  You can then send your note directly to that
person.

-----------------------------
Subject: GN3. Basic Soc.Roots Etiquette

 (1) Read carefully what you receive to make sure that you
     understand the message.
 (2) Read carefully what you send, to make sure that your
     message will not be misunderstood.
 (3) If you are using humour or sarcasm, make sure to clearly
     label it as such. Humour is usually indicated by a smiley
     e.g. :) or <G> (grin).
 (4) Remember that the absence of visual clues normally
     associated with face to face communication provides an
     ideal environment for being misunderstood.
 (5) Know your audience. Make sure that the person or list of
     people you are sending your message to are right ones to
     be communicating with.
 (6) Be tolerant of newcomers. None of us were born knowing
     all.
 (7) Avoid cluttering your message with excessive emphasis
     (such as stars, exclamation marks "!", etc). It can make
     the message hard to follow.
 (8) If you are responding to a message, either include the
     relevant part of the original message, or make sure you
     unambiguously refer to the original contents. It is very
     common for people to read your reply before they read the
     original message.
 (9) Always include a descriptive subject line in your
     message. Use the Subject: line to get attention and make
     sure it describes the main point of your message. Avoid
     very long subjects as some newsreaders only display the
     first 30 characters or so.  If you are seeking
     information about a family, include the surname in
     UPPERCASE in the Subject: line.

     Remember that with over 500 messages per week, many
     people use the subject line to decide if they should read
     your message or not. "Need help" or "Genealogy" are not
     good subject lines. Likewise, not everybody who reads
     this newsgroup lives in the USA. Please give an
     indication of the country or countries you are interested
     in.
(10) Keep messages to only one subject. Second subjects within
     a single message are often missed.
(11) Be specific, especially when asking questions. If you ask
     about a person, identify when and where the person might
     have lived. If you ask about software, please identify
     what computer and operating system you use.
(12) Always put your name in the text of the message, and also
     your best email address for a reply. I suggest you also
     put your postal address in the message as well so anyone
     can reply to you, even if they cannot reply
     electronically to you.
(13) Many readers have very limited, and in some cases
     expensive electronic mail facilities. Be particularly
     careful not to cause unnecessary traffic, or to send
     unnecessary long messages.
(14) Remember that not all readers have English as their
     native language, so make allowance for possible
     misunderstandings and unintended discourtesies.
(15) Please keep your messages shorter than 10,000 bytes,
     about 3 or 4 pages of text.
(16) Please DO NOT include a list of the surnames you are
     researching in your signature file, because when that
     message is stored in ROOTS-L and somebody is searching
     for your surname - they only need to find it once, and
     hopefully it will have your address with it as well. If
     they are searching, and get too many hits, then they may
     not request all the message numbers and therefor may miss
     seeing your message.
(17) Please DO NOT send "test messages - the system works, and
     if you must test it, at least send a valid message, with
     useful information or questions.

-----------------------------
Subject: GN4. Access to the LDS database.

All questions concerning the possibility of accessing the LDS
database via telnet or FTP, or by any electronic means will be
answered NO. The only way is by going to an LDS (Latter Day
Saints) family history centre

-----------------------------
Subject: GN5. What about Alt.genealogy?

Alt.genealogy is a bogus newsgroup that for reasons not worth
reciting refuses to go away. Soc.roots gets about a hundred
posts a day. Alt.genealogy gets a few each week. It has been
suggested that people do not use the group alt.genealogy on
USENET.

-----------------------------
Subject: RL1. What is ROOTS-L?

ROOTS-L is a discussion list where those who have an interest
in Genealogy may communicate via Email messages in hopes of
finding more family history information. This discussion list
is gatewayed to the Usenet newsgroup Soc.Roots, the intention
being that all messages sent directly to ROOTS-L also appears
in Soc.Roots, and vice versa.

Subscribers to ROOTS-L, and readers of Soc.Roots form what is
in effect a single electronic community, though they have
somewhat different ways of sending and receiving information.

-----------------------------
Subject: RL2. How do I subscribe to ROOTS-L?

You may subscribe to the ROOTS-L mailing list by sending an
email message to [e-mail] with the following one
line as the only text of the message:

SUBSCRIBE ROOTS-L first last

where "first last" is your first and last name. Do NOT include
any other text such as a sig file. The LISTSERV will attempt
to read it as a series of commands.

-----------------------------
Subject: RL3. How do I Unsubscribe to ROOTS-L?

You may leave the ROOTS-L mailing list at any time by sending
either of the following messages to [e-mail]:

SIGNOFF ROOTS-L               or
UNSUB ROOTS-L

No name is needed. In fact it will not work if you put your
name.

-----------------------------
Subject: LS1. What is LISTSERV?

LISTSERV is the computer which controls the ROOTS-L mailing
list. It also holds many files to do with Genealogy. Please
try to learn the difference. Send a message to ROOTS-L if you
want to communicate with humans. Send it to LISTSERV if you
want to talk to a computer.

-----------------------------
Subject: LS2. What is available from the LISTSERV?

Probably the most important thing you can do would be to
request a listing of the FAQ index from LISTSERV. These cover
virtually every topic you can think of, and in some detail. So
before you start to ask questions, send the following message
to [e-mail]:

GET FAQ 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.

-----------------------------
Subject: GE1. What is GENEALOG?

GENEALOG is an area on the LISTSERV 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.Roots telling you about a new file.

You can request a listing of the files and their descriptions
by simply sending the following message to
[e-mail]:

/FILES ROOTS-L

It will normally take about 10 minutes for the LISTSERV
computer to reply, sending you a message with the entire list
of files.

-----------------------------
Subject: GE2: How Do I Request GENEALOG Files?

To request a file from GENEALOG, just send the following
message to [e-mail]:

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 [e-mail]:

GET GENEALOG helpfile

-----------------------------
Subject: FI1: 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 LISTSERV, send the following
message to [e-mail]:

GET FAMILY INDEX

The LISTSERV will return by e-mail, the names of the files
containing the full 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.

--
Meersbrook Technical Services,               Email: [e-mail]
35 Argyle Road,                              Phone: [phone]
Meersbrook, Sheffield,                       Mobile: [phone]
S.Yorks. S8 9HG                              Fax: [phone]