>John ball wrote: >Seasonal variations are at least part of the reason for the low activity on >the Powys List in September, but there has been a gradual decline in >activity on most of RootsWeb's mailing lists over the past decade. >I've set out below the number of messages distributed in the month of >September on the Powys List for the past dozen years: >2000 - 1058 >2001 - 248 >2002 - 239 >2003 - 136 <<<snip>>> Wow! year 2000 was a bonanza! I am wondering if the "decline" is due to all the genealogy programmes now on the internet? More and more records are being added week by week so that - in some cases at least - it is not always necessary to seek help from a list. I'm sure it is a fact that genealogy research is booming, so it is not the case re. lack of people (and the 430 people registered on this list would seem to give credence to that). I commenced my research sort of full time back in 1993, but it wasn't till about 2000 that I began to access the internet. Prior to that, and even after that in a lesser fashion, my research had been from library books, microfiche, and numerous microfilms of parish and non-conformist registers. For the past 12 months it has not been necessary for me to access any microfilms due, mainly, to the scanning of parish records etc. by Ancestry.com., Find My Past, and others. Again, could the lack of emails to the list depend upon us growing older? Perhaps we don't have the same enthusiasm and in that most of us have completed much of our family trees with only twigs left to find, this reflects itself in quiet times on lists? Not sure about that one though; I still have lots to find even after stacking up nearly 5000 connected people - and it's not about numbers, it's about quality of research. Then again, with the concentration these days on Ancestry, FMP, Genes Reunited etc., how do people new to research find out about Rootsweb lists, unless by word of mouth? Anyway, love to know what others think. Best regards Graham Melbourne, Oz

>>John ball wrote: >>Seasonal variations are at least part of the reason for the low activity >>on >>the Powys List in September, but there has been a gradual decline in >>activity on most of RootsWeb's mailing lists over the past decade. > <<<snip>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Graham Price" <> To: <powys@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2012 4:33 AM Subject: Re: [POWYS] Powys List Activity Stats - September 2012 > Wow! year 2000 was a bonanza! I am wondering if the "decline" is due > to all the genealogy programmes now on the internet? More and more > records are being added week by week so that - in some cases at least > - it is not always necessary to seek help from a list. I'm sure its very largely the expansion of online material and the fact that people are becoming much more accustomed to the idea of looking up information for themselves. It must be quite some time since I last read an enquiry along the lines of 'has anybody ever heard of a place in the UK ("England") called Swansea/Bristol/Bradford' (etc.) However, never forget there's still a vast amount of material available in public repositories which isn't on the Internet, and which isn't likely to be on the Internet for a long time yet. How you can access it will depend on your individual circumstances, but it can certainly help to flesh out the story, or to assist with problematical identifications of people. Even quite small details may be useful to a methodical researcher. Keeping your questions specific and well-focused will also improve your chances if you are hoping to find a competent local person to check particular details. And don't - of course - believe everything you read on the Internet! AJ