Listers, I realize now I should have provided a little more info regarding rootsweb mailing list archives so here goes. ALL messages posted to the rootsweb mailing lists are archived. No one, not even the listowners, can edit those archives (which is why erroneous messages, irrelevant subject lines, etc. are so critical to the archiving process). What is posted, goes in. Archives are used to search for messages regarding surnames, discussion topics, etc. posted to the mailing lists. We have been working on various archiving methods for a long time. Archives MAY not be available for as far back (chronologically) as you'd like to go. You may want to try all the different archives. These are the archives available to all rootsweb researchers. REGULAR ARCHIVES: These appear on the web page: http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?surname=BRANSON You do NOT need a user name or password. They are "searchable" by keyword but are not "threaded". If I enter my Liner BRANSON, I will get a list of all messages posted to the list where Liner or BRANSON appears in the subject line. THREADED ARCHIVES: These appear on the web page: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/BRANSON-L/ You DO need a user name and password. (the archive will prompt you to enter one, if you don't have one there is a button to set create one, and you will have immediate access). You will use it each time you visit the archives (regardless of which mailing list). These are archives created by our own Marc Nozell who has been working for over a year on an efficient and research-friendly archiving system for the mailing lists. What is "threaded"? When a message is posted to the list and no one answers it ("replies" to it), it is a single or unthreaded message. When a message is posted to the list, and one or more people answer it, reply to the reply, etc. - it becomes a "message thread" - that is, the messages are connected to each other (via the computer system). So say I enter my Liner BRANSON b. 1790 KY as a subject line and post it to the BRANSON list., and someone replies to it. When I go to the BRANSON Threaded archives and enter "Liner" or "Liner BRANSON", I will get my original message (among others). I will see on the left side of my computer screen options to for "next" or "previous". That will bring up the messages "threaded" to my original message. These archives were just established so there aren't archives earlier than around Feb. 1999. DIGEST ARCHIVES: This is a temporary feature so enjoy it while it lasts. If you are away (unsubscribed for a period of time), you can retrieve the recent digests by date and digest #. This is done via email. Send an email message to BRANSON-D-request@rootsweb.com (note it is "D" not "L" and you need the word "request") with the word ARCHIVES in the subject line. In the body put: ls volume99 (EXACTLY as it appears above - recommend "cut and paste"). You will get back via email a list of the archives for 1999 ( as it gets later in the year, the list gets truncated). Note the date and digest number of the ones you want. Let's say it's digest #34. Send a NEW message to the same address as above with the following in the body text: get volume99/34 (EXACTLY as it appears above - recommend "cut and paste"). If you want all of the digests in the "thirty" series, your message would look like this: get volume99/3* (* acts as a "wildcard"). You can also enter this way: get volume99/34 get volume99/37 get volume99/42 You will only get those three digests. The digests will be returned to you via email. Hope this helps. Email me with additional questions. Yvonne Bowers, List Owner (Looking for Liner) BRANSON-L Family List Thomas Day BRANSON family file: http://www.sonic.net/yvonne/branson/WC_TOC.htm Most Wanted: http://www.sonic.net/yvonne/branson.html GenConnect: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/Branson