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From: "Nancee Seifert" <>
Subject: [IADECATU] THE 'DELETE' KEY - From Jan Lund (a must read..)
Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2003 17:23:26 -0500

I thought this was good.....from Rootsweb about hitting the "Delete" key before reading the message. Very apropos to our list, don't you think, since we are a family or "community" ourselves!!!

1c. SQUEEZING THE MOST OUT OF MAILING LISTS. Most of us join (subscribe
to) RootsWeb Mailing Lists in hopes of learning something about an
ancestor of the surname, locality, or topic covered by the list's
subject matter. We post queries about our ancestor or about our research
problem, and we look for specific answers in response. However, when we
join a Mailing List we are on the receiving end of all messages posted
to the list. Sometimes it is easy to be quick with the delete key when a
message doesn't directly pertain to us.

However, we can often pick up information about the community and
neighbors with whom our ancestor interacted if we are not so fast at
passing over messages that on first glance are not of interest to us.
Mailing Lists themselves can become a sort of community and your fellow
list members often have good advice to share about researching the
locality, surname, ethnic, occupational, or religious group that is the
subject of the list you have joined -- obviously a subject of mutual
interest to you and the person posting the information.

Many Mailing Lists have resident list experts who can provide valuable
information about resources available for a locality and how and where
to obtain them, the time period they cover, and what you can expect to
learn from the records. You can pick up tips from others on how they
went about breaking down their brick walls regarding the ancestors they
are researching of the same surname or who lived in the same location as
yours.

The next time you find your finger poised on the delete key, pause for a
moment and consider what you might learn from your fellow Mailing List
colleagues whose research crosses paths with your own. The research
approach that worked for them may work for you as well.

Jan

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• [IADECATU] THE 'DELETE' KEY - From Jan Lund (a must read..) by "Nancee Seifert" <>

  • [IADECATU] THE 'DELETE' KEY - From Jan Lund (a must read..) by