Cousins, Listmembers - 1) The person referenced in the post I forwarded to the list the other evening has apologized and closed his site. The data belonging to USGENWEB is still available at USGENWEB sites and the USGENWEB archives at RootsWeb. Other data is available at original sites linked from Gresinet and Cyndi's, all of which are linked at http://www2.netdoor.com/~cch 2) Further discussion of the problems of the past weekend is not appropriate on these genealogy lists. Copyright-L is the list for that sort of discussion. 3) One of the features of RootsWeb which some of you may not have tried is the Roots Surname List. This month, for the first time, I have entered a few of the surnames I am researching - and have already had responses!!!! Overview of the Roots Surname List (RSL) Updated 29 January 1997 Contents What is the RSL? How to Search the RSL How to Submit Data for Inclusion in the RSL If you prefer to learn about things by doing instead of simply reading about them, and if you have access to the web, you might want to mosey over to http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/Genea/rsl and poke around... I. WHAT IS THE RSL AND HOW IS IT USED? The Roots Surname List (RSL) is a list or registry of surnames (at the time I write this, there are almost 200,000 surnames that have been submitted by over 20,000 net.genealogists, with additional names arriving at the rate of over 600 a day). Associated with each surname are dates and locations, and information about how to contact the person who submitted the surname. If you are researching a family with the same surname, in the same area and similar timeframe, then you might find it useful to contact the person who submitted the surname to share and compare notes. Do be realistic: if you're researching Woodbury in Alabama in the 1800s, a person with info on the Woodbury family of England in the 1600s isn't likely to be of much help. I mention this because some submitters have withdrawn their data from the RSL due to the flood of e-mail they're received, much of it as off target as the example I just gave. What does it cost? There is no charge to participate, although RootsWeb, the major sponsor of this effort, does accept voluntary contributions. If you find the RSL useful and would like to support it financially, please please visit http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html for information. (Really, we do need and appreciate your support! It's amazing how this beast is eating computer cycles and bandwidth.) If you'd like to have your surnames included in the RSL, there is a submission form on the web at http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/searches/rslform.html Alternatively, data may be submitted by e-mail. Directions on how to do so are included in Section III. If you see a surname listed that interests you, especially if there is a good match on dates and locations, contact the person who submitted the surname. If you're accessing the RSL via the interactive search on the web, all you need to do to learn how to contact the submitter is to select their nametag, listed at the end of each surname entry. Otherwise, you'll need to order the individual address from the mailserver at genealogy.org, as described in Section II. All the addresses listed are fairly current (verified within the last twelve months) and the best we currently have on file. There's no need to contact us about a bad address: if the submitter doesn't resurface with a valid address before the annual verification process, their data will be dropped from the list. Due to the amount of data scrubbing involved, the web-searchable RSL is currently only updated once a month, on the first Sunday of the month. (We're exploring ways to update it more frequently without going nuts. Please be patient!) Starting the next day, the new surnames are posted to rsl-update (an Internet genealogy mailing list -- to subscribe, just send the message "subscribe" (without the quotation marks) to rsl-update-request@rootsweb.com) and to soc.genealogy.surnames (the USENET genealogy newsgroup devoted to surnames) and alt.genealogy (a general purpose genealogy newsgroup). The first day, the new A surnames are posted, the second day the new B surnames, etc. (The full RSL is simply too large to be posted in such a manner.) Included in the posted update is contact information for the submitters of the new and updated info. The databases accessible via e-mail are typically updated a few days later. Section II describes how to check the RSL for your surnames of interest. Section III explains how to submit your data for inclusion. II. HOW TO SEARCH THE RSL A. Via the World Wide Web If you have access to the World Wide Web via Mosaic, NetScape, lynx, or most other web browsers, visit the URL: http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/searches/ and you can query the RSL for individual surnames, click on the submitter's nametag to be shown the submitter's contact information, etc. B. Via e-mail There are now two mailservers that provide RSL lookups via e-mail. They each employ a different syntax, so be sure, whichever you choose, that you use the commands specific to it. One mailserver was created by Michael Cooley of genealogy.org. To use it, send e-mail to server@genealogy.org. Commands go in the subject line, one per message. To check for the surname Keithley in the RSL, use the subject line find rsl Keithley To get the contact information for submitter karen, use the subject line find rsl-addr karen The second mailserver was created by Jeff Trembath. His program will search for multiple names and return the contact info all in a single pass. Send mail to rsl@genealogy.mksi.com with each surname on a separate line in the message. For more detailed information, send mail to rsl-info@genealogy.mksi.com. Or check out his RSL Search Homepage at http://gen.roc.wayne.edu/fsl.html. III. HOW TO SUBMIT DATA FOR INCLUSION IN THE RSL There are two ways to do this. One is simply to use the form on the web at http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/searches/rslform.html It will guide you through the process and get the niggling details right, and you can skip the remainder of this document. Or you can do it the old-fashioned way, via e-mail. In which case, read on... Please read this section carefully before submitting data. I receive a gazillion messages each month having to do with the RSL, and I and the other folk who prepare the data for inclusion in the RSL sometimes get cranky about the time wasted by obviously improperly formatted or otherwise inappropriate submissions. (You'll do fine as long as your submission looks a lot like the examples below.) And if the presentation below is too confusing, the one in the family.faq may suit better. BASIC GUIDELINES Send new entries and contact information to us at one of the addresses listed at the end of this note. New data received in time will be included in the next release of the RSL, typically on the first Sunday of the month. If it's late, it will be included in the release the following month. See below for format information. Please follow these guidelines: * Send ordinary text files. Please do not compress, zip, uuencode, or MIME encode your file. (The best way to avoid accidentally doing these awful things is to cut and paste your information into your mail message, rather than attaching it.) * Be sure to submit "how to reach you" information as well as surnames. At the very least, that means your name and your e-mail address. * Do not submit more than 100 surnames. (You can submit another 100 next month, if you want to.) * Do not put your surnames in CAPS. * And no Tiny Tafels. They don't conform to the RSL format, and they don't really contain the right information for the RSL. If you don't know what a Tiny Tafel is, you're in little danger of sending me one accidentally. Currently, I'm unaware of any site that is collecting Tiny Tafels. The two sites I used to list here are no longer doing so. FORMATTING YOUR "HOW TO REACH YOU" INFORMATION If you are submitting data for the first time, we need one or two lines of address information indicating how you can be contacted. The format is fairly flexible, but should include a short nametag (less than eight characters, all lower case) and at the very least your name and e-mail address. Most submitters also include their postal addresses, but that's not required. If the selected nametag has already been taken, we'll conjure up a new one. Feel free to suggest alternate nametags when you send in your data. The lines for karen (me) are: karen Karen Isaacson, karen@rand.org, karen@rootsweb.com P.O. Box 6831, Pine Mountain Club, CA 93222 FORMATTING YOUR SURNAME INFORMATION In the same message as the "How to Reach You" information, include one line of data for each surname you are submitting. What should the surname entries look like? Each entry should be on one line of no more than 80 characters in length, and should consist of five parts. Entries that don't contain at least one date and location will not be added to the database. The five parts are: 1. The name of the family, in mixed case (Smith not SMITH or smith). 2. The earliest date for which you have information about the family. (For instance, the birthdate of the founder of the family, or the year he or she first showed up in the records.) 3. The most recent date for which you have information about the family. (When the last person with that surname died or skipped town, for instance. Use "now" if you know people of this surname that are still around -- yourself, for example. It's up to you whether a woman is considered under her maiden surname, married surname, or both.) 4. The migration of the family. For instance, if my ancestors started out in Virginia, moved to Kentucky, then on to Missouri, this would be VA>KY>MO,USA. If I still have room (remember, all fields should fit on one line -- the long Keithley entry in the example below is pushing the limit), then I add some county information to further distinguish the family: OrangeCo,VA>KY>GentryCo,MO,USA. There is a list of most of the abbreviations that are in use. It is in a file called family.abbrev and perhaps the easiest way to retrieve it via e-mail ist to send a message to server@genealogy.org with a subject line that reads (without the quotation marks) "send RSL/abbrev". Or just spell out the location in your submission, and the person who does the final data entry will put in the proper abbreviation, if any. 5. The nametag of the submitter. This is so you can be found in the address list. See discussion above for how to select one. The Roots Surname Index is rather oddly computerized. There aren't any firm restrictions on the presentation of the data, but do try to use something like the format suggested above and illustrated below. Here are a few sample entries (my own, funny thing): Bell 1780 1940 OrangeCo,VA>KY>GentryCo,MO,USA karen Carr - see Kerr (karen) Keithley c1750 1823DEU>PA?>MD>RowanCo,NC>FloydCo,IN,USA karen Keithley c1750 1923 DEU>PA?>RowanCo,NC>KY>StCharlesCo,MO,USA karen Kerr 1760 now HuntingdonCo,PA>VenangoCo,PA>IA,USA karen Kicheli - see Keithley (karen) WHEN TO SUBMIT Try to get your additions or modifications in by the Thursday before the first Sunday of each month, when the monthly update is published. If you miss a deadline, not to worry: your surnames will have arrived in time for the next deadline and will be included in the next month's list. WHAT HAPPENS THEN? Shortly after a new submission is received, a form letter acknowledgement is sent. The new information will be included in the next monthly update. Shortly after the update has been released, you'll receive a form letter showing all the data we currently have on file for you. Your surname(s) will continue to be listed in the full RSL (the one on the mailservers and web) for a year. At that time, you'll receive a second form letter checking whether you can still be reached, and whether your data is still current. A positive response results in another year in the RSL, after which you receive another form letter, etc. WHERE TO SUBMIT Where do you sent your data so it can be included in the RSL? Internet: rsl@rootsweb.com <- preferred karen@rootsweb.com Postal: Karen Isaacson <- not preferred P.O. Box 6831 Pine Mountain Club, CA 93222 Carol Carwile Head <cch@netdoor.com> http://www2.netdoor.com/~cch Listowner for the GEN-MAT lists (new/used genealogical materials), IMMI-GRAND (immigrant grandparents research), RAN-CLAY (east-central Alabama counties), ALBLOUNT (Blount county, AL), ALTUSCAL (Tuscaloosa county, AL), and Agnew, Bailey, Barker, Bell, Bowen, Bozeman, Cannon, Carwile, Cloud, Creel, Crowder, Couts, DeVaughn, Ferguson, Forde, Gannon, Garrett, Grogan, Head, Humphreys, Jordan, King, Knotts, Lipscomb, Lynch, Page, Poole, Pursley, Roland, Sapp and Thompson surname lists, now at RootsWeb.