Beginning March 2nd, 2020 the Mailing Lists functionality on RootsWeb will be discontinued. Users will no longer be able to send outgoing emails or accept incoming emails. Additionally, administration tools will no longer be available to list administrators and mailing lists will be put into an archival state.
Administrators may save the emails in their list prior to March 2nd. After that, mailing list archives will remain available and searchable on RootsWeb
Hello CHATFIELD Cousins,
Welcome to our new CHATFIELD family mailing list members who have joined us
recently! You are invited to introduce yourselves and tell us about your
CHATFIELD research.
As subscribers, you all know how family surname mailing lists work, so I'd
like to pass on to you a bit about how the suite of CHATFIELD GenConnect
boards differ from the list and the functions of both, how they work
together, and how we can best utilize them in our research.
The CHATFIELD family GenConnect boards can be found at....
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~tmetrvlr/chatfieldb.html
This is from the GenConnect User FAQs.....
"Both mailing lists and Boards have strengths and weaknesses. A mailing
list, even one that is publicly archived as most of the RootsWeb lists are,
is primarily focussed on the present and discussion taking place currently
among a group of people.
"In depth discussion is possible and direct interaction among the members of
the group of subscribers. Discussion on a mailing list tends to cover a
topic at length, and when that discussion is exhausted a new discussion
begins on another subject. The strength of a mailing list is the ability to
include a large number of people and opinions in an ongoing, in depth,
discussion benefiting list subscribers immediately.
"By contrast, query and message boards like those in our GenConnect system
not
only function within the present time, but provide long term archiving and
universal searchability by anyone who chooses to search for a surname.
"There is no requirement to subscribe to a discussion group to make a contact
through a search, post a question to a Query Board, or access archived
documents, using GenConnect. The strength of a Query board rests with its
being the best place to post a query about your "dead end" or "brick wall"
ancestors. You might not get an answer tomorrow, or even next week; but the
query remains in place for anyone at any future time to find it and to make
contact with the original poster.
"A far larger audience will search the surnames included on the board
messages over a period of time than will subscribe to any one mailing list.
The non-query (document) boards provide an excellent place to record, search,
and archive Bible Records, Biographies, Deeds, Obituaries, Pensions, and
Wills, for your future reference, and to aid others in their research.
"If everyone who has access to some family record in the above categories
would simply transcribe and post the information in their possession, in time
there would be a very valuable storehouse of information for the benefit of
future genealogists."
It has been suggested to managers that posts made to the GenConnect boards be
forwarded on to the corresponding mailing list, thus giving more immediate
access to this information by list members. Unless there are objections, I
will begin sharing board queries and data posts with you.
Thanks so much for the opportunity to pass on information regarding this
terrific research tool!
Kindest regards,
LaRae Halsey-Brooks
CHATFIELD mailing list mgr.
CHATFIELD GenConnect mgr.
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~tmetrvlr