---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 25 May 1997 06:48:56 -0500 (CDT) From: Glenn Gohr <ggohr01@mail.orion.org> To: HANKS-L@rootsweb.com, GENSMER-L@rootsweb.com, KASTNER-L@rootsweb.com, PYRON-l@rootsweb.com Subject: MAISER Story For your interest, here is the article about the Maiser shutdown that appeared in the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION newspaper on Wednesday, May 14th: E-mail mishap halts genealogy service Researchers, buffs lose a valuable tool by Art Kramer STAFF WRITER A Dunwoody retailer said he unwittingly started a chain of junk e-mail that undermined one of the most popular exchanges of genealogy information on the Intenet. The shutdown is depriving tens of thousands of genealogy buffs of their most effective online research tool, said John Rigdon, national coordinator of The USGenWeb Project, a genealogy clearinghouse on the World Wide Web. The exchange, called Maiser, is a collection of mailing lists for those trading research about their ancestors. Many genealogy buffs subscribe to several lists, keyed to cities, towns, regions or family surnames. It's not unusual for a genealogy hobbyist to sift through several hundred list-sent messages daily, in search of a clue that points to a distant ancestor. Maiser, the largest collection of detailed lists with 40,000 subscribers, was forced off the Net last week after being used as a fake return address to hide the identity of a junk e-mailer. The disaster began when Sam Khuri, general manager of Benchmart Print Supply, sent a $100 money order to the post office box of a company that promised to advertise his service to 50,000 potential customers. "If I knew what they were going to do, I never would have sent the money," said Khuri, whose company recycles toner cartridges for copiers. The contractor, whose identity Khuri said he lost in a computer crash of his own, e-mailed thousands of ads touting Khuri's service last week. The junk e-mail was routed through Indiana University computers, making it appear the ads had come from the same computers that are home to the genealogy lists. The tactic of forging return addresses, making an uninvolved third party appear to be the sender of junk e-mail, is a common one. Such practices prompted several online services, including CompuServe and Prodigy, to get federal courts to help them bar junk e-mailers from their services. Larry Stephens, an Indiana University official who organized the groups as a hobby over the past three years, was forced to shut them down Friday rather than let them appear to be the source of the junk e-mail. Stephens said he couldn't risk furthering the perception that the junk e-mail was somehow connected to the university. "The loss of these mailing lists is devastating," Rigdon said. "We've lost approximately one-third of our backbone for genealogy research. About 20,000 daily users of the Internet have been effectively left with no communication." Stephens may reopen some of the regional lists this week if he can find software that can't be commandeered by junk e- mailers, but with the added security burden, he said it's unlikely he will revive the surname lists. Robert Turner, 52, a postal clerk in Huntsville, Ala., and a descendant of traveling blacksmith David Turner, bemoaned the demise of the surname lists. Turner and his wife, Winona Turner, added 4,000 ancestors to their family tree in the 30 years before they computerized their search, but 20,000 more in just 16 months online. Without the surname lists, said Turner, looking for his ancestors "will be akin to driving down a dark country road with no headlights."

*~* ~*~*~*~*~*~* WELCOME TO *~*~*~*~*~*~*~* *~*~* THE PYRON FAMILY GENEALOGY LIST *~~* ~~~~List Manager~~~ Glenn Gohr ggohr01@mail.orion.org Welcome to the PYRON Family Genealogy List, a discussion area for genealogy and/or family history related to the PYRON surname and variant spellings. Although this is an unmoderated list, I am responsible for keeping it running as smoothly as possible and setting some rules for its operation. ~~~~~IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU READ THE ENTIRE MESSAGE~~~~~ PLEASE read the message thoroughly, and SAVE it for future reference. Transfer this note to a special SAVE file or better yet, print it out and put it in a safe place, because it contains the information you will need for subscribing to the list, unsubscribing from the list, for changing the manner in which you receive mail, for correcting any error conditions, and for posting messages to the PYRON discussion list. If you have received this Welcome message, then you are subscribed to the discussion list. It may take a couple of days before you begin to receive mail. Some of the lists are slow, so give your mail at least a couple of days to begin. If you do not start to receive your PYRON mail within a week, then try sending a message to the list and see if you receive a copy. If you still are concerned that you are not receiving mail properly, please contact me at: ggohr01@mail.orion.org and together we will find the solution. You are currently subscribed in "mail mode," which means that you will receive every posting made to PYRON as a separate e- mail. The directions on how to change to digest mode are given below. 1. How to unsubscribe. Send a message to PYRON-L-request@rootsweb.com that contains (in the body of the message) the command unsubscribe and no additional text. 2. How to subscribe. For future reference (for instance, if your subscription is cancelled for whatever reason and you want to resubscribe), just send the command "subscribe" to PYRON-L-request@rootsweb.com. 3. How to change to digest mode (several postings are combined and sent to you together as a single large message). There are two steps. First, send the command "unsubscribe" to PYRON-L-request@rootsweb.com to discontinue mail mode. Second, send the command "subscribe" to PYRON-D-request@rootsweb.com to start receiving digests. 4. How to change to NOMAIL mode. There is no formal NOMAIL mode. All you have to do is follow the directions above and unsubscribe when you want the messages to stop, and then when you want them to start again, simply subscribe again. 5. To post a genealogical or historical message, question, or notice to the entire list, please send it to: PYRON-L@rootsweb.com We ask that you give some thought to a meaningful subject line so that other subscribers may tell at a glance if the message is of interest to them. One suggestion is to include dates and geographical references. For example: PYRON, John b. abt 1750 NC Then list your message in the body of the E-mail. (It is also polite to sign your name and include your E-mail or other address at the close of your message as some computer hookups do not include the sender's name and address in the header.) It will then be sent on to everyone in both mail and digest mode. You don't need to send it explicitly to both. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* A FEW OTHER COMMENTS If replying to someone on the list, remember that the system is set by default to automatically address all replies to everyone on the list. If you have a personal message for someone, please send it to their address, not the list server address. Any mail sent to PYRON-L@rootsweb.com will automatically be sent to everyone on the list. Do NOT, under any circumstances, append attachments to any E-mail addressed to the PYRON List. ALWAYS ask the intended recipient by prior personal E-mail if they are able to accept an attachment because many mail readers cannot handle attachments. You can even cause some systems to crash simply by sending attachments. Rootsweb also requests that you not list surnames along with your signature line as their computer indexes EVERY word that appears in an E-mail message. As the moderator of this list, I intend to send announcements from time to time, along with other messages and queries of interest to the group. I also will reserve the right to step in if a flame war, personal attack, or other abuse should occur on the PYRON Family Genealogy List. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* IN CONCLUSION: Remember three addresses: 1) IF YOU NEED HELP, CONTACT ME. My address is ggohr01@mail.orion.org 2) To post a message to this list (so it goes to all other subscribers) send it to PYRON-L@rootsweb.com 3) To send one of the commands concerning your subscription, send the message (either <subscribe> or <unsubscribe> to PYRON-L-request@rootsweb.com ============================= Happy hunting. Glenn Gohr (Pyron List Manager) 1040 E. McCanse St. Springfield, MO 65803-3613 Ph. 417-833-2814 ggohr01@mail.orion.org

Hi All, I've recently returned from a 5-day trip to San Francisco with my job. Now I'm heading to St. Louis for the rest of the Memorial Day weekend. As you may already know, all of the MAISER discussion lists have been shut down for almost 3 weeks now. Due to a scammer sending thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of messages through to the MAISER main server at Indiana University, they had to shut down their whole system. This has been an ongoing problem which has worsened recently. MAISER is unwilling to continue the surname discussion lists because of this problem which could reoccur and all the costs which would be necessary to set up a new system. GOOD NEWS. ROOTSWEB has decided that they do not want to see the surname lists die off. They are working with Larry Stephens of MAISER to set up all the lists again on ROOTSWEB. There are over 1,000 different surname and historical lists which will need to be transferred over to ROOTSWEB. The procedures for subscribing, signing off, and sending queries will change slightly. Of course the e-mail addresses for the lists will be different. Thanks to ROOTSWEB, this service will continue to be free for all subscribers. (And because each list has its own e-mail address and passwords, it is unlikely that a spam will occur on this system.) ROOTSWEB is the same group that runs the Roots Surname List which tries to link up people researching the same surnames You may find this list located at: http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/Genea/rs [includes links to database of some 150,000 surnames submitted by 10,000+ researchers; also links to many resources for tracing genealogy; also link to GenServ with GEDCOM databases online with over 6 million names! and 4550+ databases on files!] They also have Roots-L, which is a discussion group with queries for ALL surnames and all genealogical queries. ROOTSWEB has just gotten the PYRON surname list up and running again. I will send a Welcome Message to the discussion list, so that you will be updated on the rules of operation. I hope to hear from you, either by personal e-mail or through the Pyron list. Best Wishes, Glenn Gohr (Pyron List Manager) ggohr01@mail.orion.org

For your interest, here is the article about the Maiser shutdown that appeared in the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION newspaper on Wednesday, May 14th: E-mail mishap halts genealogy service Researchers, buffs lose a valuable tool by Art Kramer STAFF WRITER A Dunwoody retailer said he unwittingly started a chain of junk e-mail that undermined one of the most popular exchanges of genealogy information on the Intenet. The shutdown is depriving tens of thousands of genealogy buffs of their most effective online research tool, said John Rigdon, national coordinator of The USGenWeb Project, a genealogy clearinghouse on the World Wide Web. The exchange, called Maiser, is a collection of mailing lists for those trading research about their ancestors. Many genealogy buffs subscribe to several lists, keyed to cities, towns, regions or family surnames. It's not unusual for a genealogy hobbyist to sift through several hundred list-sent messages daily, in search of a clue that points to a distant ancestor. Maiser, the largest collection of detailed lists with 40,000 subscribers, was forced off the Net last week after being used as a fake return address to hide the identity of a junk e-mailer. The disaster began when Sam Khuri, general manager of Benchmart Print Supply, sent a $100 money order to the post office box of a company that promised to advertise his service to 50,000 potential customers. "If I knew what they were going to do, I never would have sent the money," said Khuri, whose company recycles toner cartridges for copiers. The contractor, whose identity Khuri said he lost in a computer crash of his own, e-mailed thousands of ads touting Khuri's service last week. The junk e-mail was routed through Indiana University computers, making it appear the ads had come from the same computers that are home to the genealogy lists. The tactic of forging return addresses, making an uninvolved third party appear to be the sender of junk e-mail, is a common one. Such practices prompted several online services, including CompuServe and Prodigy, to get federal courts to help them bar junk e-mailers from their services. Larry Stephens, an Indiana University official who organized the groups as a hobby over the past three years, was forced to shut them down Friday rather than let them appear to be the source of the junk e-mail. Stephens said he couldn't risk furthering the perception that the junk e-mail was somehow connected to the university. "The loss of these mailing lists is devastating," Rigdon said. "We've lost approximately one-third of our backbone for genealogy research. About 20,000 daily users of the Internet have been effectively left with no communication." Stephens may reopen some of the regional lists this week if he can find software that can't be commandeered by junk e- mailers, but with the added security burden, he said it's unlikely he will revive the surname lists. Robert Turner, 52, a postal clerk in Huntsville, Ala., and a descendant of traveling blacksmith David Turner, bemoaned the demise of the surname lists. Turner and his wife, Winona Turner, added 4,000 ancestors to their family tree in the 30 years before they computerized their search, but 20,000 more in just 16 months online. Without the surname lists, said Turner, looking for his ancestors "will be akin to driving down a dark country road with no headlights."

Juana and I are cousins, connected by the Charles Pyron in Berryville, Carroll Co. AR. From what I know, there isn't a connection, but, that does not rule out that there may be further back than I know. I just sent Juana copies of my research, so she may have a fresher memory about it than I do, so maybe she'll get back with you. Mary ----- Original Message ----- From: "Archives Guy" <archives_guy@hotmail.com> To: <PYRON-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2001 2:21 PM Subject: [PYRON-L] Re: Charles Pyron/Berryville, AR > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <seniorfly@aol.com> > To: <PYRON-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2001 12:45 PM > Subject: {not a subscriber} Re: Charles Pyron/Berryville,AR > > It is interesting the your name is Juana, indicating a Spanish or Mexican > heritage. Please read the message I just posted about Major John Pyron. Do > the two Spanish names have any meaning? > > > > ==== PYRON Mailing List ==== > You may contact the PYRON list manager at: > PYRON-admin@rootsweb.com > >