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Archiver > ROOTS > 1988-11 > 0594860745


From: Alf Christophersen 02 45 41 97 <>
Subject: Letter from Soc.Roots on Usenet Netnews
Date: Mon, 7 Nov 88 00:05:45 ECT


Path: ndsuvm1!cunyvm!nyser!itsgw!sun.soe.clarkson.edu!batcomputer!cornell!roches
ter!bbn!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis
!killer!mazda
From: (John Wilson)
Newsgroups: soc.roots
Subject: Re: Roots-Index is fine, but...
Message-ID: <>
Date: 4 Nov 88 20:12:22 GMT
Organization: The Unix(R) Connection, Dallas, Texas
References: <>
Lines: 76

(Ellen Keyne Seebacher) writes:
>Roots-Index doesn't do much good for those of us who are still searching for
>*any* information on a variety of lines, and want to connect with anyone else
>who has *any* information on those lines. I feel that the "IN THEIR
>POSSESSION" requirement is too restrictive. (Only in the case of my own
>surname, Seebacher, do I have significant information.)

After much trepidation on my behalf and discussion in the group, I decided
to try out a version of a ROOTS-INDEX and see what happened. The results
have been, for the most part, positive. The INDEX users that I have heard
from reported quite a few successful `contacts' and exchange of information.
Since articles posted to the group have a very short `lifetime', the occasional
querys posted by soc.roots readers probably had little chance of making a
`hit' with someone else who was researching a similar line *during the
short timeframe* of a posted query. Another major problem of the soc.roots
group (as I saw it) was that USENET has over three hundred seperate groups
of interest and thousands of users. There are probably many instances of
users taking a passing `browse' thru the soc.roots group and then losing
interest and unsubscribing. If one checks the news.lists group for
statistics on soc.roots usage, we rate very low in the overall picture.
Apparently the soc.roots USENET group is not a major genealogical focal
point for research.
With this in mind, I created the INDEX to be used as a *SOURCE* of information
by readers who were hopefully half-assed serious about genealogy, had done
some significant compiling and/or research of their own and have an *ongoing*
interest of furthering their efforts.

>Perhaps we could start another, parallel list, with the names each of us are
>beginning research/have little information on? In my case, these are docu-
>mented ancestral names, but I either

I'm not sure of your use of the word `we'. Perhaps YOU should start and
maintain an alternative INDEX. I will gladly E-mail you the occasional
requests for addition to the ROOTS-INDEX that I receive that have over
two hundred names, with dates beginning and ending a few decades apart,
with migrations that begin and end in the same place, with duplicate
names, with no return paths, ...etc. In other words, the requests of
people who have done little actual genealogy work on their own but who
would be glad to receive the work of others.
I could think up some appropriate names for you to call your new index but
I am neither angry enough nor impolite enough to include them in this
article.

>* haven't been able to trace them back more than a generation or two
> beyond their "first" appearances, so I doubt whether they'd be of
> interest to others, or
> * I have information on those names in the countries of origin, but no
> documentation yet for the connection.

How much effort have you put into your tracing? Chicago is a fairly large
city. Have you checked for an LDS - IGI library there? Have you written
or interviewed your living relatives? Have you attempted to compile what
information you do have into computer transferrable or line printer
printable form so that you can E-mail it or U.S.Mail it to others?

> (And, of course, Seebacher...)
>Anyone with ANY information on these names is more than welcome to contact
>me at:

RIGHT!
---
BTW - Ms. Seebacher, I have corrected the spelling errors in the INDEX which
you pointed out to me. I have not yet, however, appended my path to the
longer version which you suggested. I will do this as soon as I find the
time. (I'm not aware of any mailing problems others have encountered due
to my abbreviated path). Oh yes, and your line will be added to the
INDEX on the 15th posting.

PAX

--
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....the greatest sensation of existence, | J.P.Wilson - ...!killer!mazda
not to trust, but to know. a.r. |
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