BRYSON-L Archives

From:
Subject: [BRYSON] Useful Info on How to Check Rootsweb's Archives
Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2003 19:10:00 -0500 (EST)

This is useful information on how to search Rootsweb's
archives (old messages). I am forwarding it to you:
it came to me from the listowners' list.

Elizabeth Whitaker
Bryson List Admin
---------------------------------------------------------

For more information on how the browseable and searchable list archives
can be used effectively you might want to check this out and maybe share
it with your lists (from the RootsWeb Review Oct. 9, 2002):

ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/review/20021009.txt

Buried Treasures at RootsWeb: Mining the Mailing Lists Archives.
The RootsWeb Mailing Lists archives contain the content of years of
discussion that have been carried on among researchers of the subject
matter of these various Mailing Lists. Thus buried in these archives could
be some treasures that might benefit you in your quest to learn more about
your ancestors. Someone at another time -- perhaps years ago -- might have
posted just the information you seek today.

Because the Mailing Lists archives' content is not included in the
metasearch results when you type in a surname on the main RootsWeb page, a
specialized search to find the treasures in the Mailing Lists archives
must be conducted. Such searches may result in finding some sparkling gems
pertaining to your genealogy that you will not discover elsewhere.

The archives of the individual Mailing Lists are both browseable and
searchable from two separate RootsWeb archives. Most Mailing Lists at
RootsWeb are archived. The Threaded (browseable) Archives is at:
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/
and the Interactive Search (searchable archives) is located here:
http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl

Both of these links -- Interactive Search and Threaded Archives can also
be found under the Mailing List section on RootsWeb's Home Page:
http://www.rootsweb.com/

In the Threaded Archives, responses to an original message are displayed
attached to the message to which they are replying in an outline format
with responses indented from the original message. Thus you can follow an
entire subject of discussion by tracing through a thread of messages in
the archives. Browsing the Threaded Archives also benefits new
Mailing List subscribers who may want to get a feel for the list before
posting to it or wish to check out whether their ancestors have
previously been discussed. It also aids current Mailing List members by
enabling them to check messages they might have missed while on
vacation, during e-mail delivery problems, or because of a computer crash.

Starting at the Threaded Archives http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ type in
the Mailing List name of your choice to access an index page showing each
month and year included in that particular list's archives. View an
outline of the subjects of all messages posted to the Mailing List within
a given month (including the poster's name and date posted, if desired) in
either threaded (the default) or chronological order. Click on a subject
of interest to view the full text of the message.

The Interactive Search located here:
http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl
allows you to search a single Mailing List one year at a time by marking
the appropriate radio button. (Radio buttons are round circles which
represent choices within an list of options on a form.) Select a
keyword, name, or phrase to obtain results matching your search
criteria. The Interactive Search supports some Boolean operators (AND, OR,
ANDNOT) to help you establish the most effective searches to suit your
needs. Boolean expressions are used extensively by Internet search
engines.

By default, your searches will include every field in a message, but you
may narrow down your results by specifying that you want your search to
apply only to matches in a specific field. In the following examples all
Boolean operators are shown in capital letters while all search criteria
are shown lowercase. This is for explanatory purposes only -- as both are
case insensitive.

You may search for john OR smith by using the OR operator. You will obtain
all messages containing either the word John or Smith. However, if you
search on "john smith" or john+smith the results will only yield instances
where the words John and Smith appear in that exact sequence. The use of
quotes or a plus sign creates a complete phrase. Searching for john AND
smith (using the AND operator), or john smith (with a single space
separating John and Smith) will yield results where John and Smith appear
somewhere in the message, but not necessarily side-by- side.

The ANDNOT operator may also be used as follows: john ANDNOT smith which
would yield all messages where the word John was found unless the
message also included the word Smith.

Grouping search criteria and the applicable operators within parentheses
will permit more complex searches. For example, (sarah AND jones) OR (john
AND smith) will yield results where Sarah AND Jones OR John AND Smith
appear somewhere in a message but the words are not necessarily
side-by-side.

Searching on a specific message field, such as searching for all
messages posted to a list by a specific poster during a year, is
accomplished by typing in the search criteria: from/
Only the "from" field will be searched. If you are looking for a
specific thread and you know the subject or partial subject you wish to
locate, you may opt to search the "subject" field only, as follows:
subject/"john smith in ohio" -- note that double quotation marks are used
to tie the entire phrase together when you are searching for more than a
single word. The phrase in quotation marks must match the
subject, or a portion of the subject, exactly to return a hit.

You may search for all messages posted on a given day without specifying a
field but you must use quotation marks to tie the phrase together. For
example: "02 may 2002" will get all messages posted on May 2, 2002 and "22
may 2002" will get all messages posted on May 22, 2002. Searching on "may
2002" will yield all messages posted within the month of May 2002, and
searching on 2001 will result in getting all messages posted to the list
for the entire year.

Interactive list searches support trailing wildcard
s only (wildcards
coming at the end of a word). Use an asterisk * to represent zero or more
unknown or variable letters at the end of a word after you have specified
a minimum of at least the first letter. Interactive list searches work on
whole words and not strings of letters. In other words, if you search for
john and a message includes johnson it won't come up in your results --
but if you search on john* it will.

One benefit of the searches applying to words rather than strings of
letters is that a search on sy will pick up the given name or surname Sy
but will not yield words which include the string "sy" such as the word
"easy".

Exploring the Mailing Lists Threaded Archives and using the Interactive
Search capabilities in creative ways may reward you with some previously
buried genealogical treasures.

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