Here is the long overdue summary of the current procedures for conducting BLANCHARD-L Mail List Archives searches and for retrieving files. First, some related comments. 1. Messages <can still be retrieved> from RootsWeb using e-mail. 2. The web site for searching any of the RootsWeb Mail List archives is at: http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl 3. John Robertson's Page at: http://www. shelby.net/shelby/jr/robertsn/rwsearch.htm where he gave some tips for searching from the web pages, <is no longer online>. 4. Messages from the former "BLANCHARD Family Genealogy List" at RmGate are also available at RootsWeb Archives. These messages are identified by date only. 5. RootsWeb messages for 1998 are not yet available from the Archives. 6. RootsWeb archived messages are divided into 1996 and 1997. These messages are identified by "latest/xxx" for Mail Mode messages and "volume 97/xxx" for Digest Mode messages. "xxx" refers to the number of the Mail/Digest message. 7. On Wednesday, 25 Mar., Brian Leverich, co-owner of RootsWeb, made the following comments in a message to rootsweb-help@rootsweb.com , <The new search engine box is in beta test now, the USGenWeb <Archives have been reindexed and are now being reindexed on <a regular schedule, Karen's reindexing the mailing list <archives now, and I expect we'll be moving the new search <engine box into production within the next few days. <As soon as the new search engine box is in production, I want to <take a look at ways we might do efficient indexing of all of <RootsWeb's Websites. I think we're going to be able to serve up <something pretty whizzy for everyone to use. Cheers, B. My interpretation of this is that there will soon be a new Search routine for <all> web archives (including Mail Lists) at RootsWeb so whatever "works" now may not be valid then. I don't know how this will affect e-mail access to the archives or whether this option will continue to be offered. 8. This just received from the newly established "RootsWeb Help Desk". <Sponsor accounts for mail list web pages are temporarily on hold. <Your request has been noted - and as soon as more disk space is <available all Requests for mail list web space will be created. Here are procedures that I have found to work. [Using e-mail] Send message to: BLANCHARD-L-request@rootsweb.com Subject: archive message: get BLANCHARD latest /xxx Substitute the number (xxx) of the Mail Mode message you want and it will be returned. (Remember, this can only be used for 1996/1997 RootsWeb Mail messages.) Subject: archive message: dir latest A directory or list of all Mail Mode messages will be returned. This shows the file size, date and message number ( /xxx ) for each message. Messages are <not> in numerical order but appear as: 1, 10, 100, 101, 102, etc. Subject: archive message: search subject: latest/* This will return the Subject: lines for the first 512 messages. Requests for Digest Mode messages and information have, in the past, been sent to: BLANCHARD-D-request@rootsweb.com but I have been unable to retrieve a Digest using the following commands: get Volume97/10 or, get volume97/10 I have been unable to get a list of Digests using the following commands: dir Volume97 dir volume97 ls volume97/* (dir = ls) The Archives Web Search Page can be used to retrieve Digests. To obtain a list of current subscribers to BLANCHARD-L, send to: BLANCHARD-L-request@rootsweb.com Subject: archive message: get dist This is an option that listowners may select and is, for now, available to our list members. [Archives Web Search Page] All Mail List Archive searches start at the main search page: http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl 1. Enter the name of the List you wish to search i.e. BLANCHARD, then, Submit. 2. Select the appropriate year for the message(s) you want to search (1997, 1996) then enter your search string (words) in the Query: box. 3. Mail Mode messages. RootsWeb has <not> retained the message number (latest/xxx) in the headers of the messages, therefore, it is necessary to retrieve Mail Mode (individual) messages according to the date the message was posted. (I asked Brian many months ago, if this could be included but I guess it was a minority request). Ex. To retrieve all Mail Mode messages posted on 23 Mar 1997, enter 23&Mar&1997 in the Query Box The symbol "&" represents the Boolean operator "and" and means that you want to search for the complete sequence of the three words, "23" and "Mar" and "1997". Without the "&" symbols, the search would return all matches with "23" or "Mar" or "1997". Because this date does not uniquely identify a single message, the search will return <all messages> that have "23 Mar 1997" in their headers or text. Some of these may be messages that quoted a message posted on that date so you will have to sort them out. I have also found that this search is not 100% accurate, sometimes, messages posted within a day of the date specified, are also returned. 4. Digest Mode Messages You must enter a "search string" to retrieve Digests. Ex. To retrieve the digest volume 97, number 5, enter V97 (or v97) in the Query box and Search. Note that the "&" symbol is required. 5. To perform a search for a particular name, place, etc., enter the "search string" as before with the word or words that you are searching. i.e. Amaziah, Azariel&Blanchard, etc. All messages containing those word(s) will be returned. Note that you can select the Full message with headers, or just the Message Body, when viewing a retrieved message. Select a message and then use the Find/Search feature of your web browser to locate all appearances of the search word(s) in the message. 6. Any message retrieved as a result of a "word search" can be printed from your web browser. You can Copy/Paste a portion of a message to a word processor, text editor, or an "out" message in your mail program, in order to print it. 7. If you know of other ways to perform Archives searches or to obtain lists of Mail/Digest messages, please report them to me. If any of you are listowners/managers and have additional or conflicting information on RootsWeb Archives, please share it with the List. Fletch 29 Mar 1998