Hi again family, I hope you're all having a THRILLING Thursday! :) Now that I've complete the newbie-dedicated Coffees and we're back to normal family routine, let's have our first roll call for 2002. Cousins on the BOWER-L: As the parent list, you should expect to receive EVERY roll call message coming from each of the BAUER-L, BAUR-L, BOWERS-L and BOWRA-L as they are posted. Conversely, all BAUER-L, BAUR-L, BOWERS-L and BOWRA-L messages in the BOWER-L roll call will be crossposted over to our smaller counterparts. Cousins on the BAUR-L, BOWER-L and BOWRA-L: You should begin your roll call TODAY. Cousins on the BAUER-L and BOWERS-L: Your roll call will begin in about 4 days or so, when the roll call traffic on the other three teams slows down. I'll let you know when to begin. In the meantime, your traffic should pick up a little more than usual. The idea here is to keep Colleen's inbox from overflowing and you from receiving duplicates of my forwarded messages! :) For the next two weeks everyone please be sure to keep your mailboxes emptied so we don't have a slew of bounced messages and you won't miss out on even one post. Cousins who are homebound ... be sure NOT to skip this roll call. One of the cousins who travel might see your message and select it to incorporate with his/her research trip, providing you with the results! (yes, it DOES happen here in the family) Roll call? What IS she talking about now??? For those of you who are brand new to online genealogy, or just genealogy in general, this next part is for you: TO OUR NEWBIES and NOVICES ~~ (Print this out if you need to) ~~ ROLL CALL FAQs *** A roll call means EVERYONE in the family should post those lines they are looking for. It's kind of like reporting in to the list saying, "here I am ... looking for (whoever)." This is also the time our lurkers come out and "report in." *** You should expect traffic on the BOWER-L to be extremely heavy this week and possibly part of next. Although you can post a query anytime during the year, roll calls here are special because nearly everyone posts ... including our lurkers. It's an important time and you don't want to miss out, but your mailboxes are going to get full fast. Please be sure to check them daily and keep them emptied so your mail won't bounce. *** Although the traffic is going to get heavier and may be a strain on your time to keep up, PLEASE STAY WITH US. This will only last about two weeks, if that. You don't want to unsubscribe just as an inline cousin is posting a line you've been watching for, then end up missing the very message you've waited all this time for! :( *** Be sure to use ONLY that email address to post with that you signed up to the list with. Any other address will not be recognized by Rootsweb and their servers will kick your message out of the system. *** Send your roll call messages DIRECTLY TO YOUR LIST team at <BOWER-L@rootsweb.com> or <BAUER-L@rootsweb.com> or <BAUR-L@rootsweb.com> or <BOWERS-L@rootsweb.com> or <BOWRA-L@rootsweb.com> whichever you belong to. Please DO NOT send them to me as I am only one person with one line when, what you want, is for ALL the cousins to see who you're looking for. *** There is no special format. You just need to remember to include names, dates and places as best you can. If you're nervous about this, you might want to sit back a day or two and read some of the other cousins' posts and see how they did it, then just do what they did. Everyone has their own style and preference for setting up a roll call message. *** If you're a newbie, the best thing you can do for yourself is to announce it first thing in your message! It alerts the rest of us to be especially watchful of your material. PLEASE MAKE YOUR SUBJECT LINE READ SOMETHING LIKE THIS: ROLL CALL: Bowers, John (1782-1860/70, NY > OH> MI) ROLL CALL: Baur, Johann (Switzerland, PA, IL) PLEASE DO **NOT** MAKE YOUR SUBJECT LINE READ LIKE THIS: John Bower (or) Bowra family (or) Roll call Subject lines should have enough information so that a potential reader will know if they are interested before reading the message itself. This means, at the very least a place (a state/country preferably with county/region) and a time period. Even better is an actual name, but that's probably secondary unless he/she is the focus of the question. "PA Baur" is okay; "Lehigh, PA Bauer 1750+" is better. Help us to help you by giving clear subject lines, okay? Thanks. :) I hope this answers any questions you might have, but if not, go right ahead and ask! Your post is every bit as important as mine or any other cousin's. :) Colleen