Mailing List Rules for Success
1. Format your questions in an efficient and effective manner. Keep the message as brief as possible, while still providing all pertinent information (being too vague will discourage responses as well as waste the time of list members who suggest things that you've already tried).
2. Be specific in your subject line. People just don't have time to open and respond to emails titled "need help." Be sure to include the primary topic of your query in the subject line of your email - whether it be a surname, place, or time period.
3. Be courteous. The mantra "you only get one chance to make a first impression" holds true on the Internet as well as in person. Be polite in all postings, use good grammar and punctuation and don't type messages in all capital letters (this is the equivalent of shouting at the reader).
See How to Write a Successful Genealogy Query for more tips on requesting information on a mailing list.
Search the Mailing List Archives
Many genealogy lists, most notably those hosted at RootsWeb.com, maintain archives of old messages. These archived lists are one of my favorite places for locating information on specific people or places. This is especially true for surnames or locations in which I don't do a lot of research, so am not subscribed to the relevant lists. I also use the archives to check out a new mailing list before I subscribe, to get a feel for the interests and mentality of the list members.Messages posted to the tens of thousands of genealogy mailing lists hosted on RootsWeb.com over the past decade can be searched all at once via Archives Search. The advanced search allows you to search the text of the message, the subject line, or the from field. Quotes allow you to search for a specific phrase. The ? wildcard character can be used to represent a single missing character, and the * wildcard can be used to represent one or more unknown characters. A search for ANDERS?N, for example, will return results for both ANDERSON and ANDERSEN, while a search for THOM* will return results for THOMS, THOMAS, THOMPSON, etc.
Most archived mailing lists offer some type of similar search feature, although not all offer as many options. But even with basic keyword search you can find many treasures:
- Search a Surname mailing list for the name of the county or town in which your ancestor lived, or the surname of a wife or other collateral family member.
- Search county and other local mailing lists by surname to find others researching your ancestors. You may also want to search for the name of a specific place, such as a cemetery or church.
- Once you find a mailing list post by a researcher with similar interests, try searching by email address to find other posts by that individual
