Hello Everyone, I thought it might be time for a list update. At the present time there are 14 subscribers to the regular version of the list and 5 subscribers to the digest version. As I am sure most of you already know Rootsweb has thousands of mail lists for all localities and surnames. So, I thought this might be a good time to talk about what is involved in posting an effective message for mail lists. First of all, to post a message to any Rootsweb mail list you have to be a subscriber. You can find a list of available mail lists by going to the main rootsmail web site at http://www.rootsweb.com/. To make your post more effective make sure you do the following: 1. Make sure your post is appropriate for that list or in other words post to the appropriate mail list. A request for information on John Smith in Tennessee is going to be a lot more effective if posted on the Smith or Tennessee mail list than it is on the Jones mail list. That may seem obvious but you have no idea how often that happens...<grin>. 2. Make sure the subject of your message reflects the contents of your message. A subject like "Hunting for my grandfather" or "Seeking family information" isn't going to get the same readership as "John Smith - Rutherford Co., Tn" or "Jane Doe - b. 1813 Ky". 3. Include who, when, and where in your message if at all possible. There are a lot of Henry Jones or John Jenkins folks out there and if you don't explain which one you are hunting you are less likely to get a response. 4. Don't post off topic messages. If you have any doubt then contact the list admin. 5. if you have any questions or concerns always contact the list admin. You can contact any list admin by sending a message to [email protected] For example, [email protected] 6. As you meet others working on the same surnames invite them to join the various lists. The more people working on a surname the more sharing there can be. 7. AND.... remember, if you don't try you won't get anywhere So....the way to make contacts is to post your information.....hint.... hint.....<grin>. Hope this helps. Take care and have a great day. Emma